City Of Cork
City Of Cork looked good in winning the opening maiden hurdle at Clonmel on Thursday. Settled back in the main body of the field early on by JJ Slevin as the three market leaders occupied the first three positions, with a nice break between them and the rest, he made ground to latch onto the front three as they left the back straight and headed for the home turn. Moved towards the outside on the run to the second last flight, he jumped into third place over that obstacle, joined the leader World As One on the run to the last, jumped on over the last and came away on the run-in to win nicely.
It was a fine run by Joseph O'Brien's horse on just his second run over hurdles, and his first run since he finished fourth in a bumper at Thurles in March. The time of the race was good, it was three and a half seconds faster than the handicap hurdle run over the same course and distance, and he wasn't the beneficiary of a pace collapse, his finishing speed was over 114% of his overall speed, and he was fastest of all through five of the last six furlongs. Out of dual bumper winner Beautiful Citi, a full-sister to Stayers' Hurdle winner Home By The Lee, this was his first time to encounter good to yielding ground, and he handled it really well in his first-time hood, with the tongue-tie that he had worn in each of his first three runs left off this time. He has the pace for the minimum trip but, given his pedigree, there is obviously every chance that he will be better over further. He will be of interest again now when he steps up in grade.
Clonmel, 22nd October 2026
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