One Horse Army lands gamble in handicap chase

One Horse Army justified strong support when taking the Gormanlough Handicap Chase in decisive fashion at Navan.

The Padraig Roche-trained gelding has obviously had his training issues and only appeared occasionally on the track over the past four years.

Offers of 16/1 on the course were soon snapped up and the lightly raced Mahler gelding was sent off at just 5/1.

Aidan Kelly ’s mount made headway to challenge early in the straight, leading before two out and keeping on well on the run-in to beat Hunt Museum by two and a quarter lengths with A Great Buzz the same distance further back in third.

Roche said, "He's been hard to train, but today we thought we had him right.

"I'd say it was a weak race and he seems to have done it well. Hopefully, he pulls up alright.

"It is all about keeping him sound - he's an eight-year-old and he is after having just 11 runs. When we ran him, he kind of fell away.

"Today, he looked right and it looked a weak race. It is great to get a win out of him."

Additional reporting by Michael Graham