Dermot Weld’s smart hurdler Hidden Universe made a winning seasonal reappearance at Navan today, scoring a win in the October Maiden under Pat Smullen.

Beaten in the same race last year, the son of Linamix was returned the easy to back 9/4 favourite but showed plenty of his old sparkle when defeating Chaperoned by two and three parts of a length.

Weld was represented by his son Kris Weld who said “Hidden Universe won well but it was a tough slog - Pat (Smullen) said it’s a very long two miles.”

“He’ll go over hurdles now for the winter as a second season novice but doesn’t want the ground too deep.”

Thomas Weekes