Mahler Allstar and Sean O'Keeffe© Photo Healy Racing
The absence of both Changing The Rules and The Road To Fame (both due to the drying ground, officially good) meant the corkracecourse.ie Maiden Hurdle provided Mahler Allstar with a great opportunity and he duly took full advantage at odds of 1/5.
The Jimmy Mangan-trained gelding had previously come up against some smart types in maiden hurdles like Stattler and The Nice Guy, and Sean O’Keeffe kept it simple making all in this 2m4f event.
The lightly raced eight-year-old never looked in any serious danger and asserted on the run-in to beat Ask The Bookie by five and a half lengths. Jubilee Gold rallied in the closing stages to finish a further two and a quarter lengths back in third.
Mangan said, "He deserved that and is a long distance chaser. He'll have another hurdle race before going chasing next season and Sean said he likes the good ground.
"We'll pick out another race for him and I'd like to go to Liverpool. I like it there and it is always safe ground.
"If he didn't win that today I'd be in trouble so hopefully next year we can look forward to going over fences."
(TW & AM)
