Hot favourite beaten by impressive Redstone Redstone created a favourable impression on his racecourse debut, comfortably accounting for King Of Kingsfield in the 2nd To The SP Favourite At Novibet Maiden Hurdle. A faller when in the care of Ian Donoghue on his sole point-to-point start at Oldtown in February, the Soldier Of Fortune chestnut since changed hands. Now in the colours of Alymer Stud and trained by Gavin Cromwell, he was settled behind the leaders by Keith Donoghue and jumped novicey throughout. He travelled strongly to tackle the front-running King Of Kingsfield on the approach to the second last and soon disputed the lead, getting to the front on the run-in before being nudged out in the closing stages to prevail by half-a-length. Returned the clear favourite at 2/5, the runner-up had no excuses under Jack Kennedy for Gordon Elliott, with Lazer Wolf (15/2), also trained by Cromwell, 17-lengths away in third. "He fell at the last when he was upsides on his only point-to-point run. I can't say he would have won but it was a good enough race in the local Ward Union point-to-point in Oldtown. I've always liked him," Cromwell revealed. "It was nice to do that today and you wouldn't have thought the inside track here would be the ideal place for him as he's a big horse. "He's not slow and travelled well but you could certainly see him going up in trip. You probably won't see the best of him until he goes over fences." The winner is now available at 33/1 with Paddy Power for the Supreme Novices' Hurdle at Cheltenham in March. STEWARDS REPORT * S.F. O'Keeffe, rider of Our Uncle Jack, trained by Martin Paul Fitzgerald, reported to the Stewards' Secretaries that his mount ran free in the early part of the race and stayed on one paced in the closing stages. Additional reporting by Alan Magee
