Meade newcomer surprises in debut win

The market for the concluding Athboy (Pro/Am) Bumper at Navan today was almost turned on its head, as Noel Meade's easy to back Gettysburg Address (8/1) under Nina Carberry, beat the outsider of the five runner field Derrynane

The three shorter priced horses in the market each filled the last three placings with Gettysburg Address, a son of Milan, in the end shaking off the challenge of Derrynane by three parts of a length.

Meade later revealed “that's a little bit of a surprise - not that I didn't think he was good, I did, but I thought he was so innocent. Everytime we've done something with him we've nearly had to do it again.

“I'm not sure if he'll run again this spring and it'll be hurdles next season.

“He's going to be a nice horse. Up to Christmas he was showing us nothing and all last season showed nothing. He just started to boil up in the last while.”

The win was somewhat welcome for jockey Carberry who will have been saddened to hear of the death of Organisedconfusion on whom she famously won the 2011 Irish Grand National, half an hour earlier, in the previous race.

By Tom Weekes, quotes from Gary Carson