Chutzpal justified strong market confidence, as he trounced the opposition in the first divide of the John Purfield Memorial Handicap Hurdle.
Successful on the level at Killarney last month, the Henry de Bromhead-trained five-year-old was widely expected to follow-up this evening, going off the clear favourite at 11/10 (from 2/1 in early shows).
On just his third start for current connections and making his debut in handicap company over flights, the Markaz five-year-old disputed the lead early on, gaining an outright advantage after the second.
Briefly joined five out, the market leader eased clear from the third last and while far from fluent at the next, he never came off the bridle under Rachael Blackmore, easing to a 12-length success.
The Ciaran Murphy-trained Sydney Cruiser (11/1) was best of the rest in second under Alex Harvey, while the easy-to-back Cailin Aibrean (22/1 from 9s early) was half-a-length away in third.
"It was his first run over hurdles for us. I'm delighted with the way he jumped, he had been schooling nicely at home but he was really attacking his hurdles today. Delighted to see him jump as well as he did," stable representative Robbie Power, reflected.
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