James McAuley has enjoyed a good run at Dundalk over the past few months and he saddled Dalvey to gain a gutsy victory in the featured View Restaurant At Dundalk Stadium Handicap.

The Dansili gelding, who started last season off a mark of 98 before dropping down to 76, was recording his third win here since November and needed to be tough coping with the blustery conditions.

The seven runners were virtually in a line around the two-furlong pole but it boiled down to Dalvey and a resurgent Bowerman inside the final furlong, with Shane Foley’s mount scoring by half-a-length. Sunwalk could find no extra a further length-and-a-quarter away in third.

McAuley said, “That's brilliant. We thought the handicapper might have had him but then he might have a lot of those horses.

“He was running in claimers not that long ago and that was genuinely the level he was at. He's actually run well on his last couple of runs.

“When he won over two miles they hacked that day and when we tried him over it again he didn't stay.

“Shane said a mile-and-a-half is his best trip, a mile-and-a-quarter or a mile-and-a-half is fine for him.

“If the handicapper does end up getting him we might have a look at a hurdle later in the year, he definitely has the size and scope for it anyway.”

(GC & AM)