Sergeant bounces back for Hogan

Thecompanysergeant bounced back to winning ways when claiming the novice hurdle at Kilbeggan this afternoon.

Denis Hogan 's charge had been pulled up on his return to action at Galway earlier in the month and showed the benefit of that run.

Daniel King sat behind the leaders in the two-mile-three contest before picking off front-runner Mighty Mo Missouri on the long run to the last flight.

The 2/1 shot galloped on strongly in the closing stages to post a two-and-a-quarter length win over Baltic Bird

“To be honest Galway was a rush job and he missed ten days two weeks out from the race and I shouldn't have really gone there but it was the aim for a long time. It was a mistake by me to send him,” said Hogan.

“He definitely took a blow in the dip there in a very competitive race, this was calmer waters, and he needed to be 110 percent going into it but was probably just short.

“I didn't have to do much after that, that put him right. He's come here against a lesser grade and won well.

“He's a lovely horse, the last day is the first day he was ever out of the money.

“He wasn't expensive as a store and he's been a really good servant to us and hopefully he's got another good year ahead. He's still a novice up until Christmas so we'll try and exploit that if we can.”