Kathleen is new Easter Cup fav after timely reminder of ability

DROOPYS KATHLEEN is the new favourite for the €30,000 Shelbourne Park Bookmakers Easter Cup after recording her first victory on Irish soil for 16 months with a brilliant first round success in the 550 yards Classic.

Admittedly it was only the second such race for Robert Gleeson's 525 yards record holder after a much-publicised stop-start 2025 campaign but it confirmed there is plenty of power left in her engine after a quiet return a fortnight earlier.

Sent off evens favourite for heat two, she sped to the bend to comfortably lead her rivals, went clear along the back straight and was never threatened in beating Lemon Hidalgo by three and a half lengths in a best-of-night 29.31sec.

Other heats went to Owen McKenna's Callaway Five (29.47sec), Daniel O'Rahilly's Droopys Faithful (29.59sec), Tom O'Neill's Lemon Orla (29.63sec) and Michael O'Donovan's Hackney Mati (29.85sec).

Shelbourne Park Bookmakers Easter Cup (final Saturday 4th April): 3 Droopys Kathleen, 5 Lennies Tank, 6 Callaway Five, Droopys Faithful, 12 Callaway Knegare, Coosane Pickles, Hackney Mati, Miami Hyland, 14 Ballyhooly Bruno, Miami Hans, 16 Lemon Hidalgo, 20 Lemon Orla, 25 bar (e-w 1/4 1,2,3,4).

The first four in each second round heat this Saturday qualify for the semi-finals with the final on Saturday 4th April live on sisracing.tv

All the competition action will be covered in the weekly Irish Focus which is published at 6pm on this website every Wednesday evening.

Saturday's Easter Cup second round heats