Koktail looks tasty following Leopardstown triumph

Henry de Bromhead is eyeing a trip to the Grand National meeting at Aintree with Koktail Divin following a comprehensive victory in the opening race at Leopardstown on Monday.

The French recruit had shown a decent level of ability in his first two starts in Ireland, with a narrow defeat at the hands of Kaid d’Authie at Leopardstown’s Christmas meeting followed by a third-place finish behind the currently sidelined Kawaboomga at Fairyhouse.

Koktail Divin was an 8-11 favourite to make it third time lucky in the Leopardstown Members Maiden Hurdle and landed the odds with an impressive six-length verdict under Rachael Blackmore.

“I’m delighted with that. He had a lovely run at Christmas but I probably messed up when we were under the weather in January,” said De Bromhead.

“I dropped back in trip, wrongly – and as everyone knows, we weren’t flying at the time. It’s lovely to see him go and do that today.”

Koktail Divin holds an entry in the Turners Novices’ Hurdle at next week’s Cheltenham Festival, but will not be part of De Bromhead’s team travelling to the Cotswolds.

“We won’t do that, we made that decision the other day. It’s nice now that he’s won a lovely race, and he was impressive there,” the trainer added.

“We’ll have a look at Aintree, there are some nice races there for him.”

Barnahash Primrose could also have her sights raised after pulling clear in the 1888 Restaurant Mares Maiden Hurdle.

The 4-1 shot was hampered and almost carried off the track after the pacesetting Glens Lullaby fell three flights from home, but Brian Hayes managed to keep the partnership intact.

Jack Kennedy looked set for a comeback winner after turning for home in front aboard 8-11 favourite Qualimita, but Barnahash Primrose was doing her best work at the finish and had eight and a half lengths in hand at the line.

Winning trainer Jonathan Sweeney said: “That was great. There were a lot of things went wrong for her in the race. At the start, she nearly went out through the wing. She’s an honest mare.

“Her mother (Barnahash Rose) won the Shannon Spray (Grade Three Mares Novice Hurdle) in Limerick but it may come a bit quick in 10 days’ time, we’ll see.

“Maybe she could go to Fairyhouse for the Grade One, would she be good enough? We’ll try to get to Limerick if we can but it might be coming a bit quick.”