Image © Healy Racing
Knockiel Synge continued his love affair with the Cross Country discipline as ran out a popular winner of the Kildare Hunt Club Ladies Cup.
Knockiel Synge continued his love affair with the Cross Country discipline as ran out a popular winner of the Kildare Hunt Club Ladies Cup.
Placed behind Lough Derg Spirit on his first try over banks at Lingstown in November, Peter Flood’s charge had been holding every chance when exiting at the last in Knockanard to further illustrate his effectiveness over the natural obstacles.
A big drifter in the market having warmed-up for the opener of the 2024 Punchestown Festival by winning a hunt winners’ contest at Castletown-Geoghegan, Georgie Benson set out her intentions from the drop of the flag as she bounced the ten-year-old out and it was a lead that he never relinquished.
Jumping from fence-to-fence, it was his Knockanard conqueror De Nordener that sat on his hind quarters as the big dangers as a group of five horses, that included last year’s winner Three By Two, broke clear heading back onto the racecourse proper.
Over the final two regular fences, De Norderer faded into fifth, as Ian McCarthy’s Fountain House came through into the second spot, but he could never get on terms with the 20/1 winner who picked up again on the run-in to triumph by four and a half lengths.
The Lingstown runner-up Transprint came through to take third with last year’s hero and the joint-favourite Three By Two in fourth.
The other joint-favourite Casey West could only manage sixth under Tiernan Power.
Knockiel Synge was a popular winner as he is owned by Hugh Mulvihill, a long-standing figure within point-to-pointing in the midlands, where he is often seen acting as the Clerk of the Scales at fixtures such as Castletown-Geoghegan and Umma House.
