Day to remember for debut winners Sugrue and Corish

IT WAS a day of firsts for Ross Sugrue and Joanne Corish who had debut winners at the Wexford venue.

Sugrue was the first to get on the sc oreb oard when he guided Philip Rothwell’s Lesssaidthebetter to victory in the Nitrofert older maiden for novice riders start since failing to take to the cross-county course at last year’s Punchestown festival.

The eight-year-old inflicted a third defeat of the season on the dual Tetretema Cup winner Aloneamongmillions when landing the four-runner race by two and a half lengths

“That was a lovely performance,” stable representative Alan Coady said. “You couldn’t but be happy with that. He put in a superb round of jumping and really enjoyed that ground.”

James teamed up with a third ha nd ler to com pl ete his hat-trick when Paddy De Pole sprang a surprise in the Clare Road Tyres winners-of-one

Tom Keating’s five-year-old was one of two maidens in the seven strong line-up but the switch to winners’ grade, just

The success was a first in the saddle for handler Tony Costello’s 21-year-old son, who said: “I’m studying business stu dies at LIT [L im er i ck Institute of Technology]. It’s great to get the first one as I’ve had my fair share of seconds

“I’m going to keep my head down and finish out college to get my degree and hopefully I can keep picking up as many outside rides as possible to keep progressing my riding for the rest of the season.”