DEADLY ON A CRUSADE IN LEAHY FINAL AT KILKENNY

Ian Fortune

Deadly Crusader could nearly drive himself to Kilkenny at this stage and he continued his love affair with the St James Park venue on Friday night, capturing the feature, the final of the valuable Georgie Leahy Memorial in tremendous fashion.

Despite suffering defeat in his each six previous outings, his last win coming in early February, Deadly Crusader was sent off a 3-1 chance and his loyal supporters were richly rewarded. The Karol Ramsbottom trained tracker, who was weighing in at a whopping 84lbs, didn’t fly from traps but he was soon in top gear, moving to the front on the bend.

Once taking over at the head of affairs, he began to ease on down the back straight. Killinure King gave chase but Deadly Crusader was in charge. The son of Droopys Sydney and Mysterious Ways maintained a strong gallop to the finish to emerge a comfortable four length scorer over Killinure King in 29.06. Ballybough Carol was a length adrift in third.