Gibney eyes Irish Grand National for Intense Raffles

A step up in trip to an extended 3m1f in Fairyhouse was no trouble at all to Intense Raffles who is certainly an exciting recruit for Tom Gibney.

Having won three times in his native France, he made an eye-catching Irish debut when making all over an extended 2m5f in a rated novice chase at this track last month.

It was a similar story today as Daryl Jacob popped him into an clear lead and he galloped home strongly after putting Brampton Belle and Good Time Jonny to the sword before two out.

The 4/6 favourite wasn't challenged in sailing home by some 43 lengths from Brampton Belle in this rated novice chase.

Afterwards, Gibney said: “It's easy to get carried away in a three-runner race where it kind of suited us as well.

“Tony's horse (Mullins, Good Time Jonny, third) is probably much better dropped out in a big field and Henry's mare (de Bromhead, Brampton Belle) hasn't been in great form anyway.

“If we didn't win it we would have been very disappointed but, at the same time, we couldn't have been happier with the way he did it.”

The Irish National looks on the cards now for the winner with Gibney adding: “We could have gone for the novice race tomorrow in Naas but we decided to come here today to test out the distance. We wanted to see if he'd stay and today it looks he'd get every bit of it (Irish National trip).

“There is a good chance he'll come back on Easter Monday. I'd say he probably needs to go up 8lb to get into it.”

Additional reporting by Gary Carson