No Looking Back lowered the colours of Cheltenham Festival hero Brazil in a match race for the Coolmore NH Sires Kew Gardens Hurdle at Limerick.
With just the two runners declared, Padraig Roche's Boodles winner Brazil was a 2-9 shot to strike Grade Two gold off the back of a Grade Three success in last month's Fishery Lane Hurdle at Naas.
From the off Mark Walsh appeared keen to make the most of the hot favourite's experience, with Brazil already a veteran of 14 races compared to No Looking Back's three outings.
Brazil remained in front halfway up the home straight, but 3-1 chance No Looking Back quickened smartly between the final flights to grab the lead and even an untidy leap at the last was not enough to stop him scoring a shade cosily by two and three-quarter lengths.
No Looking Back upsets Brazil in the feature Grade 2 event at @LimerickRaces, with the four-year-old galloping clear to win for the Phillip Enright and Oliver McKiernan team 👏 pic.twitter.com/WPfJGANpXq
— Horse Racing Ireland (@HRIRacing) December 29, 2022
Oliver McKiernan's charge was winning for the third time following previous bumper and maiden hurdle wins at Thurles, while the trainer and jockey Phillip Enright were completing a quick-fire double following the 10-1 victory of Difficult Decision in the preceding race.
Tiego Vidal, McKiernan's assistant, said: "He always showed plenty of ability at home. He won a bumper and a maiden hurdle at Thurles and there wasn't much option for him, so we took a chance here.
"He did well and had to dig deep, but I hope the boss is very happy with the result.
"He won on good ground twice but he doesn't seem to mind that ground. I hope he can improve from that and see how far he can go."
