James Smith registered his first winner as a professional jockey today, steering his father, trainer Matthew Smith's Bigz Belief (14/1) to win Sligo's opening Knocknarea Opportunity Claiming Hurdle.

Riding Bigz Belief for just the second time, Smith made all on the six-year-old as the pair fought off all challenges to score by three and three-parts of a length from Britzka

Afterwards trainer Smith said "James got his amateur license last year and has had two bumper winners. I wouldn't have enough opportunities for him as an amateur and don't have many bumper horses, so he decided to get his conditional license two or three months ago.

"He's a good young lad who's with me the whole time and works hard.”

He added “this horse had been frustrating at times but has ability and he'd been running well on the Flat lately. James rode him the last day and felt he should have made more use of him, so he knew what he was going to do today."

There were three claims made following the race: runner-up Britzka was claimed by Martin McManus to be trained by Shane Nolan for E10,000, fifth-placed Kellyiscool was claimed for E4,000 by Noel Kelly while sixth-placed Dare To Flare was claimed for E8,000 by Ian Donoghue.

Quotes from Mark Nunan