A WAVE Of The Sea pounced late to win a dramatic race for the Grade 1 Tattersalls Ireland Spring Juvenile Hurdle at Leopardstown.

Henry de Bromhead’s Aspire Tower led up to the final flight, but the 1/3 favourite did not get quite high enough and catapulted Rachael Blackmore out of the saddle.

That left Cerberus in front, but he was overhauled close home by his Joseph O’Brien-trained and JP McManus-owned stablemate A Wave Of The Sea, as the 12/1 shot snatched the verdict by a length and a quarter in the hands of Barry Geraghty.

The always-prominent Wolf Prince stayed on for second spot, a neck ahead of Cerberus.

O’Brien said: “It looked like it was going to be a great tussle out to the line between Henry’s horse and Cerberus. Unfortunately he fell, but seems up okay.

“I’m delighted that the two horses ran with a lot of credit. Barry took his time, saved all his energy and came and picked up all the pieces late.

“It looked like Cerberus was fighting with Aspire Tower out over the last and when he fell he just had a look up and probably saw the stands and everything and stopped in front.

“Mark (Walsh) said when the other horses came past him he stayed on again, but it was just too late.

“They’ll have entries in the Fred Winter and the Triumph and we’ll go from there. We’ll speak with JP and Frank (Berry) and see where they’d like to go.”

Geraghty said, “It’s a bit of a surprise, but a nice race to win. I thought off the turn in that I had a chance, but the front two pulled away from me going to the last and I felt I was in trouble.

“Obviously Rachael went at the last and the horse in front seemed to stop in the last 100 yards and my lad kept going.

“He stays well, but whether he’s good enough (to win a Triumph Hurdle), I couldn’t say.”

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