Stroll for Kilcruit over hurdles at Punchestown

Top-class bumper horse Kilcruit belatedly opened his account over hurdles with a straightforward success at Punchestown.

The seven-year-old won the major bumpers at the Dublin Racing Festival and Punchestown last season, either side of being narrowly denied by stablemate Sir Gerhard in the Champion Bumper at Cheltenham.

He was expected to take high rank in the novice hurdling division this term, but was beaten at odds of 1-14 on his hurdling debut at Cork and suffered another odds-on reverse at Leopardstown over Christmas.

The Willie Mullins-trained gelding appeared to face a gilt-edged opportunity to make it third time lucky in the Punchestown.com Maiden Hurdle - and got the job done with the minimum of fuss.

Sent straight to the lead by Paul Townend, Kilcruit was closely pursued by Bold Approach, but the remainder of the field were a long way behind from an early stage.

The 1-5 favourite was in complete control rounding the home turn and passed the post with 21 lengths in hand over Bold Approach, who was eight lengths ahead of Cratloe Hill in third.

Kilcruit comes back to form with a dominant success in the https://t.co/m1cBrSNy5N Maiden Hurdle!