Dixie gets off to a flyer in bumpers

Dixie Flyer made a winning bumper debut at Down Royal today as the Stuart Crawford trained gelding bounced back from a first-fence point-to-point fall in October to win the concluding Bluegrass Horse Feed Bumper.

The four year old was an early casualty when falling at Toomebridge on his only previous race and today, under the trainer's brother Ben Crawford, showed nice ability in beating Knockmullen House point-to-point winner Prevaricate (today's 7/4 favourite) into second.

Trainer Stuart Crawford later reported “he was very unfortunate when he ran in a point-to-point - Derek (O'Connor) rode him that day and he just made a green mistake at the first.

"We had always picked out to come here - he's a good enough jumper but it suited us to come and run him in a bumper. He's been going well, the horses have been running well and we have a nice bunch of bumper horses.

"He did that well and Ben gave him a great ride. He got out in front and dictated it and had plenty of horse left at the end.

"He could go for a winners' bumper. He has a nice pedigree, he's not the biggest but he is tough and hardy and is a typical Westerner."

Quotes from Michael Graham