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He Knows My Name springs 20/1 surprise

He Knows My Name (far side) and Carlitos Bay jump the last together He Knows My Name (far side) and Carlitos Bay jump the last together
© Photo Healy Racing

He Knows My Name sprang a 20/1 surprise in the Rainbow Communications Handicap Chase, scoring under Andrew Ring for Watson family.

Successful in two point-to-point's last season, the daughter of Kayf Tara also managed to win a hunters chase at Cork on Easter Monday.

Placed at Downpatrick and Wexford over the summer, she disappointed on her most recent start when tried over hurdles.

Back over the larger obstacles this afternoon, the nine-year-old victor was settled towards rear by Andrew Ring, making progress on the outer before the third last.

She was pushed along to challenge before the next, and was ridden to the front at the last, keeping on well from there to score by four lengths.

The front-running Carlitos Bay (14/1), who wasn't fluent at the last, had to settle for second under David Mullins for Peter Fahey, while Presenting Julio (11/2) was a neck back in third. Freewheelin Dylan (7s in early shows and from 7/2 into 5/2 favouritism on-course) finished a disappointing seventh under Liam Gilligan for Dermot McLoughlin.

Keith Watson trainers the winner, and his son Marshall said afterwards: "It's brilliant to have a winner at the festival and I'm delighted for mum and dad.

"She probably needed her comeback run in Downpatrick, she's never as good over hurdles but we had to start somewhere.

"We knew coming here she was in great form and there was a few quid on her each way at tasty prices!

"This had been the plan all along from the spring time. I didn't really want to touch her mark of 105 because I was just glad to see her in the bottom of the handicap.

"She's in Market Rasen for a Listed chase on Thursday and we'll see how she comes out of this and we'll go from there.

"We were very disappointed with her early on in her career. We had her entered in the Land Rover Bumper as a four-year-old and then we gave her two years off and it was the best thing we ever did. She's had so many niggly problems, not very much wrong with her.

"If we could sneak into the bottom of a bigger handicap over three miles on testing ground we will look at that. She won in Cork on bottomless ground."

Additional reporting by Michael Graham

About Donal Murphy
Donal graduated from Maynooth University in 2010 with a BBS in Equine Business and since attained a diploma in Sports Journalism from Dublin Business School. He holds a variety of roles in the horse racing industry, reporting for the Press Association and p2p.ie, while also working for SIS and the Tote. From Wexford, he is a keen runner and has completed over 100 parkruns at various locations around the country.