ALTHOUGH he may not win any awards for the quality of his jumping, Penhill made it three wins from four starts over timber in the Sean T. McElligott Memorial Novice Hurdle.

Willie Mullins' charge was one of three 2-1 co-favourites, alongside stablemate Bel Sas, who cut out the running, and All The Answers, who was left behind turning for home. Penhill looked to be travelling best under Ruby Walsh at the second-last flight and though he was a little sketchy at that obstacle, he certainly has an engine and ran out a seven-length winner over Bel Sas.

Walsh said: "The penny is starting to drop on him. He jumped a lot better today. There's room for improvement but he's a horse probably with a fair bit of ability. If we can just get him jumping quicker and slicker he'll be better.

"He lost his confidence a bit early on at Galway and took a long time to get jumping. We've done a lot of work with him since and his jumping was much better and he's not a bad horse.

"I got to the front and there was a very big jump there (at the second last) and I was thinking I don't really need it. I should have had the race won so I left him to fiddle it. He was good. The second horse (Bel Sas) likes to gallop and jump and he was getting a few lengths on me at most of the hurdles but Penhill probably has that bit more ability so I was able to hang in to him jumping-wise."

WINNING DEBUT

Smart bumper horse Aspen Colorado made an encouraging hurdling debut. Sent off the 6-4 favourite for the John Lynch Memorial Maiden Hurdle over two miles, Joseph O'Brien's four-year-old was three-quarters of a length too cute for Sanibel Island, with the third horse home, Golden Poet, seven lengths in arrears of the front two.

Winning jockey Mark Walsh said: "He jumped well, on the whole. He missed the second-last and Jack (Kennedy, Sanibel Island's jockey) was coming to me."

He added: "In fairness, he (Aspen Colorado) stuck his head down and battled well on ground that was very tacky. It's not his ground and I didn't really travel the whole way - his class got him through. He'll improve a lot for that. Hopefully he can go into his novice hurdle now and keep stepping up."

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