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Patience is rewarded with Spur

The Flying Spur (far side) comes to claim Slim Marvel 
The Flying Spur (far side) comes to claim Slim Marvel
© Photo Healy Racing

The Flying Spur defied a long absence when making a winning return from 526 days on the sidelines in the Boylesports Maiden Hurdle at Wexford.

Martin Brassil 's charge had last been seen finishing sixth in a Naas maiden hurdle in December 2022 and went to post a 10/1 shot tonight.

Ricky Doyle held his mount up in the two-and-a-half mile contest before coming to challenge turning for home.

The Martaline gelding claimed Slim Marvel over the last to record a cosy two-length win.

“He's a horse that cost a lot of money as a store and he ended up with a few problems,” said Brassil.

“We gave him as much time as possible and I thought this would be a starting point for him, I'm kind of surprised that he did what he did.

“He handled that dead ground. The favourite was in trouble with a circuit to run and anything that took its time was going to be finishing better.

“It's great to see him back on a racecourse and being able to do something after what he went through.

“He wouldn't want to be running on ground any better than that, yielding ground would be as good as you'd run him on.”

About Gary Carson
Gary started out as a trainee/assistant journalist with the Sporting Life newspaper and has worked in the racing industry for over 25 years. He has been with the Press Association since 2013 and won the Irish Field Nap Table in 2016. He enjoys working with horses and trained his own horse, Mamaslittlestar, to win a point-to-point in 2019.