Friends and Paul Townend tackle their final obstacle© Photo Healy Racing
The Frank King Memorial maiden Hurdle in Tramore boiled down to a match and it was 4/6 favourite Friends who was much too strong for Hashtag Pretender
Friends and Hashtag Pretender had the proceedings to themselves as they were clear after three out.
The distress signals emerged before two out on Hashtag Pretender, though, who couldn't go with Friends racing to that flight.
Friends and Paul Townend soon had matters well in hand and, despite being less than fluent at the last, powered 15 lengths clear of the tiring 15/8 runner-up. Dubeyeracingcraic was a whopping 28 lengths further adrift in third at 17/2.
This supplemented a win in a Wexford bumper last month for Friends. She was novicey at times here but was well in charge when it mattered.
Willie Mullins said:"They were going so fast over the first few hurdles and she wasn't used to that pace. The second horse had a lot more experience and Mikey O'Sullivan (on Hashtag Pretender) was going to test our one for experience and he did.
"Paul got her warmed into it and I was very happy with her in the end. The second horse has a good pedigree by Great Pretender and had nice form in France. You wouldn't expect a maiden hurdle at Tramore to be that hot.
"She will go novice hurdling and hopefully she will improve as the autumn comes in. We will look at mares' novice hurdles that are coming up."
Additional reporting by Donal Murphy
