HE might have had to work a good deal harder than odds of 4/9 suggested but Folcano got off the mark in the first division of the two-and-a-half-mile maiden hurdle to make a late bid to join Gordon Elliott’s Cheltenham team.

After an earlier reversal with Showbusiness, Gordon Elliott, Jack Kennedy and owners Noel and Valerie Moran enjoyed better luck with this six-year-old who was hard done by not to get a Navan maiden hurdle in the stewards’ room last month.