Classy Cullen steers Sykes to victory Mr Sykes caused the second major upset of the day as he took the Croom House Stud Maiden Hurdle at 25/1 under an enterprising ride from John Cullen. The winner and Big Jim Mac went clear of the field early on. Cullen then decided to take up the running and raced clear with a circuit to go and never saw another rival from there, coming home an easy winner. Rebel Fitz, who was sent off the warm 13/8fav for Michael Winters & Mikey O’Connor, flew up the straight to close the margin to six lengths at the line but his effort came far too late. O’Connor fell foul of Rule 212 for failing to take all reasonable and permissible measures to obtain his best possible placing and got a 3 day ban from the stewards. The Mark Fagan trained winner had been off the track for just over two years before today, his last run coming way back in May of ‘09 where he finished a close sixth behind Magnetic Force in a maiden hurdle at Down Royal. He had won a bumper at Ballinrobe back in May of 2008 beating Cloone Stream (who went on to win three) on that occasion.
