Captain Cee Bee puts in a great jump at Tipperary© Photo Healy Racing
< Captain Cee Bee put his younger rivals to the sword as he collected the Friends Of Tipperary Hurdle for a second successive year.
Sent off the 15-8 favourite for the Grade Two feature on his first outing since last January, the Eddie Harty-trained 12-year-old raced in fourth for much of the way as Moon Dice took them along.
All seven runners held a chance entering the straight, but after jumping the second-last Captain Cee Bee zipped to the front and cleared away under Mark Walsh to score by five and a half lengths from Midnight Game
The Like A Butterfly Novice Chase (Grade Three) was all about the prolific Rebel Fitz who carried maximum confidence among punters as the 2-5 favourite and never gave his supporters a moment's worry.
Mick Winters' 2012 Galway Hurdle hero jumped like a veteran for Barry Geraghty and after easing into the lead on the bend into the home straight, sauntered away to beat Owega Star by three and a half lengths.
Pat Shanahan's four-year-old King Of The Picts (12-1) came out on top in the Dolores Purcell Memorial Novice Hurdle (Grade Three), shrugging off the challenge of Shamar from the final flight and resisting Que Pasa s late charge to score by a length and a half under Andrew McNamara.
The main event on the Flat section of the card was the Coolmore Stud Home Of Champions Concorde Stakes and the Group Three contest was won by the Paul Deegan-trained Sruthan < Most Improved tried to make all but faded away tamely and odds-on favourite Big Break travelled sweetly to the front, but she was quickly tackled by Sruthan (11-2), who dug deep for Chris Hayes and worried her out of it by three-quarters of a length.
Joseph O'Brien moved to within one of Mick Kinane's long-standing record of 115 winners in an Irish season when his father Aidan's Buonarroti (7-4 favourite) ran away with the Athassel House Stud EBF Maiden from the front, winning by eight and a half lengths.
