Review of Downpatrick action

Merchent Paddy demonstrated the benefit of his first two chase starts when justifying hefty market support in the Ladbrokes Andersontown Road Beginners Chase.

Sent off 12-1 and 16-1 on respective appearances at Gowran Park and Punchestown last month, the Charles Byrnes-trained gelding was backed into 8-11 favouritism here and his supporters barely had a moment's worry.

After travelling smoothly, Davy Russell sent the seven-year-old to the head of affairs with a big leap two fences from the finish and swiftly put the race to bed, scoring by two lengths from chase newcomer Deutschland.

In The Zone produced a strong late surge to land the Ladbrokes
Telebetting Maiden Hurdle.

Having been sent to the front with a circuit to run, the 11-8 favourite looked in trouble as Johnny Kilawee and For The Staff jumped the last in front.

But Paddy Flood got a real tune out of Mouse Morris' charge, running on well to beat Johnny Kilawee by half a length.

The Ladbrokes Northern Ireland EBF Maiden Hurdle produced a thrilling finish between Orpheus Valley and In The Haven, with the former edging the verdict.

Noel Meade's 10-1 shot looked up
against it when In The Haven travelled smoothly into the lead four flights from home, but Paul Carberry never gave up aboard the five-year-old and he dug deep to record a half-length victory.

Bandearg (5-1) put up a fine front-running performance to readily
land the Ladbrokes.com Handicap Hurdle under Sean Flanagan.

Raised 9lb in the weights for a seven-length win over the same distance at Thurles a couple of weeks ago, Dusty Sheehy's mare had her rivals in trouble from some way out and she never relented the gallop.

Bronx Boy moved into contention three-out, but he could not get near Bandearg, who had sixteen lengths in hand at the line.

Games (8-1) landed a similarly gutsy pillar-to-post triumph in the
Ladbrokes - Biggest Local Bookmaker Beginners Chase, while Selection Box found significant improvement to open his career account at the sixteenth attempt in the Joe Rea Memorial Handic