Heads Up, runner-up in the Champion Bumper at the Cheltenham Festival, made no mistake on his first run over obstacles in the Connolly's Red Mills Irish EBF Auction Maiden Hurdle at Listowel.
John McConnell’s five-year-old beat all bar the Willie Mullins-trained Bambino Fever at Cheltenham in March and was sent off the 8-13 favourite to get his career over timber up and running.
Ridden by Mark McDonagh, he made most of the running and despite landing on all fours after the last he was able to win unchallenged by two lengths, with a return trip to Cheltenham now on the horizon.
McConnell said: "It is a big relief as I felt sicker (with nerves) today than before Cheltenham. He had been jumping very well at home and while we hadn’t overdone it schooling-wise or work-wise, there is improvement left.
"He is in a good while but we had taken our time, so he wasn’t fully wound up. He had done enough to come here, but because of the way the ground had been we haven’t been able to school him on grass. He also hasn’t schooled at today’s speed, so there are reasons to be happy and we can go forward now."
He went on: "We always knew he was a really nice horse so we weren’t that shocked to see him run so well at Cheltenham. Before sending him home for the summer, we did two weeks schooling with him and he was very quick to jump.
"The owners aren’t too far from here so this was always the plan and there’s a good crowd of them here.
"We’ll go back to Cheltenham in November now which is a great meeting to go to and while he could be a two-and-a-half-mile type of horse, I don’t mind if he is a two-miler, either."
