All Those Years and Mark Walsh (right) win from De Lady In Red © Photo Healy Racing
All Those Years got up late on to justify good support in the opening rated novice hurdle at Cork this afternoon.
The Charles Byrnes-trained gelding had been easy to back this morning (5/2 to 7/1) but was punted into 9/4 favourite on course.
Mark Walsh held the JP McManus-owned gelding up in the early stages of the two-miler with the Kayf Tara gelding taking a keen hold.
He took closer order over the third last and tackled front-runner De Lady In Red at the penultimate flight where both the front two were sticky.
There was little between the pair going to the last but De Lady In Red got the better jump to gain a narrow advantage. All Those Years rallied well on the run-in to get up late on for a half length win.
All Those Years, a bumper winner on his debut, was making his first outing since November 2020.
"He had a few years slip by and has had his problems but we were hopeful,” said Byrnes.
"His hurdle run at Listowel (in 2019) behind Jeremys Flame wasn't half bad and he was pretty fit.
“The second horse jumped exceptionally well and at the last it was more a better jump by her than ours.
"It was basically a handicap and they were all running off their correct weight and we'll look for another two mile handicap wherever we get one - there's a race for him at Thurles in a few weeks."
(Quotes by Tom Weekes)
