Mandarin Monarch registered his sixth career success at Sligo today as the Andy McNamara trained gelding landed the Kevin Egan Cars Opportunity Handicap Hurdle under jockey Dillon Maxwell.

The son of Manduro chased leader Roachdale House for most of the race before moving past that rival in the home straight and scoring a four and three parts of a length win over Room To Roam with Roachdale House filling third place.

Afterwards trainer McNamara said “the race just worked out ideally for him and the two of them (leader Roachdale House and chasing Mandarin Monarch got a handy enough lead.

“Things haven’t worked out quite as well as we would have hoped this summer but that’s probably the most valuable race he’s won.

“There is a good bunch of lads involved, they are all from Galway so he’ll be rolling on to the Festival probably for a staying race on the Flat.

“He’s a horse we claimed for E10,000 and he’s after winning five for the lads and it’s their first ever horse.”

Quotes from Alan Magee