'He's just a brilliant jumper' - gamble landed as Your Honor makes all in feature handicap hurdle

A gamble was landed in the feature Listed QuinnBet Handicap Hurdle when Your Honor, backed from as big as 20-1 overnight into 9-2 favouritism, won with authority for trainer James Nash and rider Gavin Brouder.

The Curragh trainer had this race in mind for the four-year-old for some time, even as far back as when he bolted up in a maiden hurdle at the venue back in March. It was only Your Honor's second win over hurdles, but his ability to jump quickly and economically out of the very testing ground saw him pull five and a half lengths clear of Luminous Light.

Nash said: "He was so impressive when he won here on similar ground and it was a fairly obvious move to come back here. It's great prize-money.

"He jumps so well and seems to want genuinely heavy ground. I suppose we'll have to go to the spring festivals with him now. We thought about going chasing with him this year, thankfully we didn't, but we might sooner rather than later. He'll do the same with a fence, he's just a brilliant jumper."

Bookie benefits

Thegraveyardbookie was last turning in with seemingly no chance of winning the 2m3f maiden hurdle, but the contest changed completely when the leader Now Is The Hour fell at the second-last with the race at his mercy. 

The winner, who was matched at the maximum price in-running, landed running over the second-last and went on to score with conviction under Conor McNamara.

Thegraveyardbookie's trainer Emmet McNamara said: "His jumping was very poor early on, I was almost embarrassed! Conor was a lot further back than he wanted to be, but he has a bit of an engine and there's huge improvement in him.

"There's no doubt he was lucky today, but if he jumped better he would have been in a much more competitive position. He's a very raw, weak horse, and I think he could be a nice horse in time. We'll probably give him maybe one more run this season in a couple of months and then put him out to grass."

Bridge of dreams

The biggest-priced winner of the day was the William Murphy-trained Aghmorough Bridge, who belied odds of 50-1 to win the 2m3f maiden hurdle run in memory of Andrew McNamara. 

"I was hoping for a good run," Murphy said. "The horses have been sick for a couple of months, but we had one run well yesterday which encouraged us that she might run well. She was a good point mare, the owner is brave and wanted to come here, and fair play to him. I imagine she'll go over fences next.

"Her mother was a great mare for us. This one has a little bit to go but we can start working towards something now anyway."

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