Exit Poll digs deep at Roscommon to continue Jessica Harrington’s great run

Exit Poll and Sean O'Keeffe win the Ballymore Group Irish EBF Kilbegnet Novice Steeplechase (Grade 3) from Embittered (near) at Roscommon. Picture: Healy Racing.

Exit Poll continued Jessica Harrington’s super form, both on the Fat and over jumps, when digging deep for Sean O’Keeffe to foil Embittered in the Grade 3 Ballymore Group Kilbegnet Novice Chase, the highlight of Roscommon’s last meeting of 2021.

Successful in a Kilbeggan handicap last time, Exit Poll (85/40) dictated the pace and, joined by favourite Bold Enough at the second last and by Embittered (who landed a bit steep) at the last, the seven-year-old Elusive Pimpernel gelding found plenty on the run-in to get the better of Embittered, whose rider Jack Kennedy received a six-day whip ban, by a neck, with Bold Enough 13 lengths away in third.