Patience is rewarded with Spur 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.”