Conor oozes Spring class

Our Conor put himself firmly in the Triumph Hurdle picture with an impressive win in the Grade 1 Spring Juvenile Hurdle at Leopardstown.

The Dessie Hughes-trained gelding was not hard pressed in seeing off the highly-touted Diakali and bookmakers were quick to react in making him favourite or close second-best for the big Cheltenham prize.

Paul Townend set out to make the running on Willie Mullins' first-string, sent off the 7/4 favourite, but his jumping was never all that fluent on his third run over timber.

Although he was still in front coming to three out, Townend had him under pressure and Bryan Cooper was still lobbing along on Our Conor, who had impressed with the manner of his hurdling.

Cooper brought the 10/3 winner alongside rounding the home turn and soon put the race to bed, taking a long look back at some floundering rivals.

He produced one more precise leap at the last, where Diakili was again not fluent, and only had to be pushed out to score with plenty in hand.

British raider Ruacana, also unbeaten going into the race, finished third for the John Ferguson-Denis O'Regan combination ahead of the disappointing Mullins second-string Blood Cotil.

Sky Bet cut the winner to 5/1 for the first race on Cheltenham's Friday card, where he is joint with Rolling Star, with other bookmakers shortening him to around the 6/1 mark.