Ponder lands touch back over hurdles

Pause And Ponder reverted back from fences to land a tidy gamble in the Drogheda Handicap Hurdle at Navan.

The former winning point-to-pointer was supported on track from 33/1 into 12/1 at the off, and travelled really well to challenge after two out.

The Oscar gelding led away from the last but needed to be driven right out on the run-in by Phillip Enright to hold on by a length and a quarter. Silver Tara stayed on well to take the runner-up spot with The Bay Birch also finishing well another half a length away in third, and Clontarf completed the places in this 2m6f event close up in fourth.

Winning trainer Robert Tyner was represented by his wife Mary who said, “I have to thank the owners, they’ve had great patience waiting for this horse because he’s had back problems and different things.

“They were disappointed the last day he ran in Naas so we decided to put him back over hurdles and he seemed to enjoy himself today. We’ll keep going for something similar now when he’s in that frame of mind.

“He can jump fences well too but he just seemed to disappoint the last day.”

(GC & AM)