Natural Breeze continued a decent run for trainer Philip Rothwell over the past few months when recording a game victory in the Tote.ie Home Of The Placepot Handicap Hurdle at Clonmel.

The 25/1 chance hadn’t troubled the judge in ten previous outings but made most of the running under James O’Sullivan and kept on very gamely under pressure on the run-in to prevail by a diminishing half a length - in the process foiling a gamble on Definiteadare

The runner-up, available at 40/1 this morning and further supported leading up to the off from 18/1 into 11/1, challenged when pecking on landing two out and was closing down on the winner in the closing stages. Get Home was a further four and three quarter lengths away in third.

Rothwell said, "That wasn't a surprise, he is a summer horse and the trip suited. I told James I thought we had a good chance and to jump out and be plenty positive on him.

"We'll step him up in trip as the summer comes along and these little tracks suit him and he could end up in those conditions' chases during the summer.

"We have young horses now running in handicaps and they are finding a bracket now and competing. I don't have a star horse now and don't have anything to fly the flag so I need these to be winning and there is 18 months gone into these winners.

"We have been doing the same thing for quite a while but have got rid of a lot of horses which weren't good enough. We are starting with a fresh bunch and are working our way through it."

(TW & AM)