Review ballinrobe 26th Jun

Champion jumps trainer Willie Mullins kept up his cracking form on the level when smart hurdler Ceol Rua won the Ladies Day At Ballinrobe Maiden at Ballinrobe.

Successful twice at Royal Ascot with Simenon, Mullins was giving bumper winner Ceol Rua (4-6 favourite) her first start on the Flat after she slipped up when going well in a Punchestown handicap hurdle on her last start in April.

She was never travelling for Pat Smullen, but he kept on pushing and the seven-year-old eventually picked up the leaders and forged to the front deep inside the final furlong to score by half a length.

The Michael Grassick-trained Allusive Power had shown very little in her two outings this season and was sent off a 16-1 chance in a field of five for the Irish Stallion Farms EBF Fillies Maiden.

It looked unlikely that she would figure in the finish on the approach to the final bend, but she got a lovely run up the rail and responded well to Niall McCullagh's urgings to beat favourite Golden Acorn by a length.< Via Del Corso looked to have the race in the bag when she stole a healthy lead going to the final quarter-mile of the Coleman Quarries Handicap, but it was a close call in the end.

Colm O'Donoghue was still clear inside the final furlong, but the David Kelly-trained filly (8-1) slowed and had just enough in the locker to hold Painted Fingers and the unlucky Curl Cat by two necks.

There wasn't much joy for punters in the Michael & Peggy Dowd Memorial Handicap as Val O'Brien's 20-1 shot Cognomen broke his duck at the 21st attempt, leading on the home bend for Leigh Roche and coming home two and a quarter lengths clear.

Charles Moore's 13-year-old Muskatsturm (16-1), last seen over jumps more than eight years ago, looked as though he had never been away as he swept clear to take the first division of the Mask Pavillion Opportunity Handicap Hurdle by four and three-quarter lengths under Keith Donoghue.