THERE is a lot made of the lack of British-trained horses at the big Irish festivals but Anthony Honeyball is paving the way for his compatriots, having sent out his third Punchestown Festival winner in two years following the success of Kilbeg King (12/1) in the 22-runner Grade B Conway Piling Handicap Hurdle.

Honeyball, based in Dorset, trained Sully D’Oc and Lilith to win handicaps at this festival 12 months ago, and his unexposed novice hurdler got a dream run through here under Galway native Aidan Coleman, who had him race prominently on the rail and edged out for a gap at a crucial stage in the straight, in direct contast to the runner-up Lets Go Champ who was bumped several times.

“I just think we get a chance in handicaps here,” Honeyball said when asked about his decision to come to Punchestown again. “You look at some of the handicaps and a lot of the horses have run recently and are just chucked in here and I’m sure there are some trainers targeting it, but we certainly did target it, kept our horse fresh.

“We weren’t sure if he could run a blinder and finish sixth or seventh, that could have been a blinder for him. But I think actually three miles and this ground looks to be the key - good to yielding sort ground, I think might be where we got the improvement. Aidan gave him an absolute peach.”

Coleman recieved a three-day ban from the stewards for his manouvre to get Kilbeg King out from behind Grozni, which caused a ripple effect that affected Toss Again and Lets Go Champ.

Good as ever

Dinoblue has had a fine spring campaign, finishing second in the Grand Annual and then scoring at Easter Festival at Fairyhouse, but she looked as good as ever when coming through late on to claim long-time leader and favourite Dougals Talking in the Grade B Pigsback.com Handicap Chase.

“It was just a case of freshening her up as she’d been to Cheltenham and Fairyhouse,” David Casey, assistant trainer to Willie Mullins, reported. “She seemed to improve again today because this looked better than Fairyhouse.

“She is a real admirable mare, a brilliant jumper, very tough, and you’d be delighted with the way she put her head down from the back of the second last.”

Mullins completed his second four-timer of the week when he combined with son Patrick to win the JP & M Doyle Flat Race with the exciting Ballyburn.

The Ronnie Bartlett and David Manasseh-owned five-year-old raced keenly again, although not to the same extent as he did on his debut, and with main market rival Apple’s Of Bresil failing to mount a significant challenge, this ended up being straightforward for him as he took it up early in the straight and readily went clear for a six-length win over stablemate Dancing City.