Castlegrace Paddy and Bryan Cooper© Photo Healy Racing
Castlegrace Paddy registered consecutive Navan Grade 2 wins today as the Pat Fahy trained gelding returned to action and landed the Tote Fortria Chase under jockey Bryan Cooper.
The son of Flemensfirth was last seen in Februrary when winning the similarly classified Webster Cup and today fended off the challenge of 1/2 favourite and last season's Ryanair Chase-third A Plus Tard by half a length.
Afterwards Fahy reported “he obviously likes it here, it's a fine galloping track which the likes of this horse needs. He jumped brilliant and himself and Bryan seem to get on very well.
“Hopefully we can keep going in this direction; he won the Hilly Way before but didn't have a great year after that so we won't get too carried away.
“More than likely we'll look at Leopardstown over Christmas. He's beaten a horse (A Plus Tard) there that will probably improve a lot but so will ours. I'd rate him a serious horse.
“We'll talk to (owner) Stever Parker of Clipper Logistics, Joe Foley and Bryan (Cooper) and make a decision.
“Maybe if the ground was good you'd be looking to go up in trip but on that sort of ground I think that is his trip.”
Quotes from Gary Carson
