Syndicate Fully Funded until middle of next year! Trainer Noel Meade and jockey Davy Condon have teamed up with great success in recent times and the pair combined to win the Grade 2 Friends Of Navan 'Monksfield' Novice Hurdle at Navan today, with Fully Funded. The son of Aptitude, easy to back at 6/1, made all and battled gamely to hold the challenge of Gift Of Dgab by four and a half lengths. Meade later stated "we bought him at the Newmarket Sales, having previously been rated 98 and regarded as something of a 'nearly' horse, on the Flat in France." He added "he ran a good race on his first run for us but, like a lot of French breds, then went 'back' and disappointed before then winning at Wexford. I fancied him today and told the lads (More The Merrier Syndicate) that he'd win. He may come back for the Grade 1 Navan Novice Hurdle here next - he can improve from this win." Stan James Bookmakers introduced Fully Funded at 50/1 for the Neptune Investments Novices' Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival. To use the hackneyed current political expression, the €27,300 first prize should easily keep the More The Merrier Syndicate 'fully funded until the middle of next year!' Thomas Weekes.
