Good start at Dundalk for Cotter and McDonogh

The 6/5 favourite Dandy Spirit was out smartly in the Crowne Plaza Hotel Dundalk Handicap and made all under Declan McDonogh to follow up last week’s course and distance success.

He pulled out enough in the final furlong to hold Aloysius Lilius (11/2) by half a length with That’s Mad (17/2) a further two lengths back in third.

Having won off a mark of 60 seven days ago, the 3-year-old was off 71 on this occasion and up in grade quite significantly but did the job very professionally for in-form trainer Kieran Cotter.

“He backed up his run from last week. That was his first run over five and the experience alone probably stood to him,” said Cotter.

“He had to grind it out there after an 11lb rise. He ran a good time last week and we were fairly confident he'd win again today.

“We'll see where we go from here, he's progressing nicely. There might be another day in him if he's not hit too hard.

"We'll see what the handicapper does, if we got a third win we'd be very happy.”

Additional reporting by Gary Carson