Cooper excited by impressive bumper winner

Tom Cooper looks to have a nice prospect on his hands with Icare D’aubrelle who made an impressive debut in the Jordan’s Centra Supporting Kill GAA INH Flat Race at Naas.

The well-backed 5/2 chance made virtually all under Derek O’Connor, who elected to hug the far side in the straight as his two main dangers kept a much wider path on the testing ground.

The French-bred drew clear inside the final furlong and kept on strongly to such effect that he had eight and a half lengths to spare over 5/4 favourite Trust Me Nate at the line. Hansard the only one of the seven runners with the benefit of previous racecourse experience, was a further three lengths away in third.

Cooper said, "He's very special and he has the pedigree to go with it as he's a half-brother to French Aseel who looked very good in Leopardstown before something went amiss with him.

“Bryan rode him in a school at Tipperary a couple of weeks back, two miles in soft ground, and he nearly went around a third time before he could pull him up. He's something special."

When asked if he could go the same route as Total Enjoyment, who won the Cheltenham bumper in 2004, he added: “I don't think so, we'll discuss it with the owners but I doubt it very much. The owner has a few nice horses with me and I'm very lucky to get a guy to put me back on track again.

“He handles that soft ground so well and he did it the hard way there. There was loads left in the tank.

“The race at Limerick is there. He has a great constitution for work, he has a great body and you can throw anything at him and it doesn't matter to him. He's not a horse that needs time, he's just a racehorse and I'm lucky to have him.”

(GC & AM)