Guiri and Simon Torrens© Photo Healy Racing
Champion conditional elect Simon Torrens landed the Adare Manor Opportunity Series Final Handicap Hurdle at Punchestown for the race sponsor J P McManus on Guiri
The successful German-bred seemed to jump and travel great in the big field contest, and an apparently fiercely competitive heat was his, barring accidents, from some way out.
With first-time cheek-pieces and coming off a break, Guiri represents a woman you always want to have on side at this meeting, Jessica Harrington.
Other positives were the fact that he was upped in trip and racing on a livelier surface, but Guiri, off a more than workable 113 rating, was an easy-to-back 9/1 chance.
However with another good leap at the last he really put a seal on things here as he accounted for the staying-on Low Lie The Fields by four and a half lengths.
“The bit of nice ground brought about improvement plus the cheek pieces and a step up in trip,” said Mrs Harrington’s daughter Kate.
“We couldn’t be happier with him and it’s nice to win the Adare Manor for JP. I don’t know where he’ll go next and we’ll leave it to Mum and Frank (Berry) to have a chat.
“Simon felt he was getting there too soon but he did it really nicely. He’s a nice horse.”
Conor Orr won the Adare Manor series and Henry de Bromhead was the top trainer of the series.
B. Browne, rider of Difficult Decision trained by Oliver McKiernan, reported to the Clerk of Scales that his mount burst a blood vessel and pulled up.
(AM & EM)
