Trustyourinstinct and Simon Torrens. © Photo Healy Racing
Simon Torrens made every yard of the running on the Joseph O'Brien trained Trustyourinstinct to justify favouritism in the Ballyduff Maiden Hurdle at Tramore.
A high class 102-rated horse on the flat, the gelded son of Churchill had progressed gradually in three previous starts over hurdles.
Sent straight to the front from flag fall, Torrens took his rivals out of their comfort zone from the outset. With two to jump, only main market rival Mordor (2/1) offered any sort of meaningful threat to the 8/13f.
A bad mistake at the penultimate flight brought the leader to a standstill but Torrens soon had him back on an even keel, keeping on from the last to eventually win by 11 lengths.
Winning rider Simon Torrens said: "He was a classy enough horse on the flat and it's probably taken him a while to get his act together over hurdles. It was a weak race and so we just kept it simple by going out in front.
"He is either very good or clumsy over his hurdles. In fairness he picked up again after the mistake at the second last. I'll leave it up to JP, Frank and Joseph as to what they want to do with him now, but it's great to get his head in front and hopefully he can kick on from here."
Additional reporting by Donal Murphy.
