Circe's Island and Adrian Heskin come home easy winners of the opener at Limerick© Photo Healy Racing
Cloudy Rock was the only one punters wanted to know about in the opener at Limerick, the Follow Us On Twitter Mares Maiden Hurdle, but she ultimately disappointed as second favourite Circe's Island got a deserved win to her name.
Trained by Tom Gibney and ridden by Adrian Heskin, the victorious four-year-old daughter of Kodiac had been placed on her previous two outings over hurdles, finishing third to the classy Le Vent D'Antan on her last start at Navan.
Available at 7/2 this morning, she was friendless with punters, opening on-course at 11/2 before drifting further to 6/1 at the off.
Having led and disputed throughout, she went on after the second last (usually 3 out, but the second last was omitted), and she was joined by Cloudy Rock as they entered the straight.
She was soon ridden and kicked on again as Cloudy Rock's challenge failed to materialise, going on to score easily by thirteen lengths at the line. The Flying Doc kept on to take second at 33/1 under Jonathan Burke for Jimmy Mangan, while Well Tuned was a further half a length back in third under Davy Russell for John Nicholson at 8/1.
Cloudy Rock, who was 6/4 this morning and went from 11/10 to 10/11 on-course, finished a disappointing fourth, a further half a length back.
Tom Gibney said afterwards: "She has been in great form the past three weeks but I wasn't sure how long it would last.
"I messed up at Killarney when she had to be taken out due to a passport irregularity, but its great that she has won today.
"I was afraid of the favourite as there seemed to be a lot of confidence behind her.
"She will be left out into a field now and she handles bad ground. She is not your typical Kodiac."
After the race the Turf Club Veterinary Officer examined Cloudy Rock, at the request of trainer Sean O'Brien and reported the animal to be lame post race.
Additional reporting by Thomas Weekes
