Thereisnodoubt (Eoin O'Connell) beating Instant Return© Photo Healy Racing
Thereisnodoubt overcame an absence of over ten months when taking the Adare Manor Opportunity Handicap Hurdle at Navan.
The Shane Crawley-trained gelding won twice for connections early last year at Clonmel and Gowran Park but was sent off a 12/1 shot here on his belated reappearance.
The seven-year-old appeared unlikely to be among the places after two out as the front-running Instant Return was fighting off a series of challengers.
Harvest Bow spoiled his chance when stumbling badly on landing after the last but it was Thereisnodoubt who really picked up when asked on the run-in.
Eoin O’Connell’s mount got on top in the final 100 yards to beat the 2/1 favourite Instant Return by four lengths, with Harvest Bow the same distance further back in third.
Bythesametoken looked a big threat at the penultimate flight but ultimately dropped away to finish fourth.
Crawley said, “I'm delighted with that as he had been off the track for a good while, 318 days. He just had a few niggly problems.
"We found a nice little race for him today and Eoin gave him lovely quiet ride, filled him up the whole way.
“He loves that ground. Last year he didn't have the ground. He won twice for us last year and we were just lucky to get nice ground for him.
“This year we were kind of kicking ourselves with the way the ground was but we couldn't get him out at all. He was declared twice to run and we couldn't get him out because of niggly problems. Thankfully today he got it done.”
(GC & AM)
