Double for Noel Meade on Fairyhouse opening day

Noel Meade was the man in form at the opening day of the Fairyhouse Easter Festival where he recorded a double which included the Grade 1 Ryanair Gold Cup novice chase with Chaltenham winner Road To Respect.

Road To Respect benefited from a wayward run by 4/7 favourite Yorkhill from the Willie Mullins stable which tried to run out at the final fence and just managed to get over it.

This enabled Road To Respect to get the lead and then held on by a neck from a fast-recovering Yorkhill.

Meade completed his double when the JP McManus-owned Red Jack took the bumper when forging clear at the furlong pole for Danny Benson

There was a good Meath flavour at the track today with Tony Martin and Gordon Elliott also on the mark. 

Martin won the opener with the John Breslin-owned Tudor City which benefited from a last hurdle fall by the Meade-trained Runforbob. The Tom Gibney-trained Agent Boru was second.

Elliott was on the mark in the second race when Fridaynightlights took the novice handicap hurdle.

In the race for the NH trainers' title, Willie Mullins closed the gap on Gordon Elliott (win and place prizemoney) by some €64,000 as he won the bumper at Cork and also took the Garde 1 Novice Hurdle at Fairyhouse with Agusta Kate.