Rite Of Passage Still Has Leg In Each Corner

The Dermot Weld-trained Rite Of Passage barely turned a hair in the process of remaining unbeaten over hurdles, when accounting for Healy’s Bar by a length in the Book Your Festival Tickets Hurdle at Punchestown this afternoon.

With just another one and a half lengths back to a 50/1 rag, Dun Bawn, the form proves little more than the 2/7 favourite still has a quartet of limbs, and each of those is in the correct spot anatomically.

In doing so, he completed his preparations for the Cheltenham Festival, where he’s likely to avoid a clash with potential superstar, Dunguib.

Dermot Weld was stoic after the race, commenting, “It was a satisfactory performance but that’s as far as I would go. “He found the track a little bit tight. It’s only his second run over hurdles and the reason for bringing him here was to experience the undulations. It took him time to get use to them, which he did.

“That would indicate to me that we’ll let him take his chance in the Neptune, the two-mile-five novice hurdle at Cheltenham. That’s likely to be his next race.

“He wasn’t spectacular, or overly impressive, but he did it nicely.”