Kilfenora leads home '2-1' for McManus in Brown Lad J.P. McManus registered a 1-2 in the E50,000 Brown Lad Handicap Hurdle at Naas today but one suspects not in the order anticipated as his Eddie Harty trained Kilfenora (10/1) over-turned the leading owner's strongly supported 13/8 favourite and eventual runner-up Rock De Baune. Kilfenora, under Mark Walsh, was today scoring a first win since landing a Punchestown handicap hurdle in February 2018 and having raced prominently throughout, led entering the home straight before staying on well and scoring a length and three parts win over Rock De Baune. Kilfenora was a steady 10/1 chance throughout but runner-up Rock De Baune was the best backed horse in the race. Having opened a 4/1 chance yesterday, he was a 3/1 chance early this morning before returning the 13/8 favourite. In the race Rock De Baune gave chase to Kilfenora from before the last but edged slightly left on the run-in and could not threaten the eventual winner. Winning trainer Harty later commented “last year was a mess and he’s (Kilfenora) a far better horses over hurdles than he is chasing and we sent him back hurdling and he ran a blinder at Punchestown (in May). “This was the first decent staying hurdle to target and thankfully he’s done it. He’ll go further and the Pertemps (Hurdle at Cheltenham in March) is an obvious long term target for him. “We let him go to the Curragh last week where he worked very well and we knew he was pretty straight for this. He’s a horse that you need to get a good bit of work into.” Quotes from Alan Magee
