Newlawn’s early pace decisive
Trained by John Cusack for Mary Walsh, the winner broke reasonably well but showed a terrific turn of pace to lead into the bend.
His rivals were unable to make significant inroads from that point as he maintained a strong gallop to see off Castlelyons Ralf by three and a half lengths in 29.87.
The first round of the Kasko A3 dominated most of the card and the competition opened with success for the Denis Fitzgerald-trained Soho Storm, which came late and fast to claim a half-length victory over Forest Power in 28.87.
In heat two the usually slow-starting Heres The Deal, trained by Paul Hennessy, bounced out in front and raced clear in superb style to see off Cool Present by eight and a half lengths in 28.58.
The Pat Kiely-trained Maeves A Lady finished with purpose to land the third heat.
Spur Magpie set a furious pace but his stride began to shorten approaching the fourth bend and Maeves A Lady came with a withering run to claim a half-length victory in 28.73.
The lightly raced Dripsey Hawk took the fourth heat for Pat O’Shea. Outsider Greenhills Rebel briefly challenged but the bitch repelled that effort before racing to a three and a half lengths victory in 28.92.
Mort and Don Buckley’s Ders Always One caused something of an upset when getting up late to land the fifth heat in a very smart 28.78, while Barthlemy Torres, trained by Pat Mannix for the Chester Pool Syndicate, led between the bottom bends to take heat six in 29.13.
