Racing: Charlie Swan landed his second major prize of the Easter meeting at Fairyhouse when Emmpat claimed the €130,000 Menolly Homes Handicap Hurdle.
Swan sent out One Cool Cookie to take Sunday's Powers Gold Cup, the first Grade One success of his training career, and Emmpat always looked likely to make it a big-race double.
Sent off as favourite for the Swinton Hurdle at Haydock last May, that event could be on the agenda again after a smooth three-length triumph over New Field to land the odds at 7-1 under David Casey.
Monoceros finished third with Jaamid fourth but the disappointments of the race were the well-backed favourite Sweet Wake, County Hurdle winner Pedrobob and British challenger Leslingtaylor.
Swan said: "For the last 10 days the owner has been ringing me up asking how he was and I kept telling him I wished the race was today as he was so well - we just needed the ground to dry up.
"The horse is entered at Liverpool on Saturday. The owner is keen to run but I think it might be a bit unfair on the horse so he could go back for the Swinton Hurdle and the Galway Hurdle is also on the cards."
Casey made it a double when Kranji (8-1) landed the Bambury Bookmakers Handicap Chase for Arthur Moore. De Valira (3-1) has always been held in high-regard by Michael O'Brien and the five-year-old went some way to justifying his faith in the Dunboyne Castle Hotel & Spa Novice Hurdle.
He could finish only 10th when well-fancied for the Supreme Novices' Hurdle at Cheltenham but showed his liking for quicker ground on this occasion. After tracking long-time leader Cuan Na Grai into the straight he quickly went two lengths clear, and despite Paul Nolan's charge rallying well, he held on by a neck.
O'Brien was also claiming a second high-profile win at the meeting after the success of Essex on Monday.
Gemini Lucy was another to bounce back from a poor showing at Cheltenham with an all-the-way victory in the Tattersalls Ireland Dan Moore Memorial Handicap. The seven-year-old mare had been in season when disappointing at Prestbury Park but she ran her rivals ragged with only Old Flame able to mount any kind of challenge.
However, Jessica Harrington's 5-2 favourite had plenty in hand and powered clear in the straight for a 17-length victory.
Carndale became Noel Meade's 100th Irish winner of the season and initiated a double for the trainer in the Menolly Homes Handicap Chase. Niall 'Slippers' Madden partnered Carndale (14-1) to his one-length success after intended pilot Paul Carberry was stood down following an earlier fall.
Carberry's sister Nina was in action though, and she completed Meade's double aboard Jered (7-2) in the closing Kilbrew Recuperation & Nursing Care Independent Living Demense INH Flat Race.