The Fonze lights up Tramore

The Fonze brought Tramore's all-flat programme to life by gaining an unlikely victory under Shay Barry in the Bookaroom.ie Handicap.

Topping the market at 11/4, the prolific winner (the fifteenth win of his career and his fourth at the course) travelled supremely win under Barry but he got shuffled back and didn't get much of a run in the dip. However once he hit the rising ground the nine-year-old went into overdrive, he came between the Willie Mullins trained-pair, Wee Giant and Strain Of Fame inside the final furlong and he got on top close home to prevail by a neck.

Winning trainer Eoin Doyle (his third at the Festival) said: "How did he win from there? We might make a flat jockey out of Shay yet!

"I ran him too soon after the Galway Plate when he pulled up at Cork. He was going to get a break then, but I gave him a piece of work the other morning and he worked better than he had done before Galway so we let him take his chance.

"He was thrown-in here on his hurdle and chase ratings. He'll have a little break now and the aim then would be the Grade 2 (the Gowran Park Champion Chase) that the won in Gowran last year."