Pink Coat has certainly been on an upward curve in recent months, and the grey son of Alhaarth recorded a career high when landing the featured Bar One Racing Handicap Hurdle at Fairyhouse

The six-year-old gelding, owned and trained by Dessie Hughes, and Maxim Gorky had the race between them when drawing clear away from the penultimate flight.

The well-backed 5/2 favourite landed just in front over the last, and proved the stronger on the run-in to score by two lengths.

Top-weight Captain Cee Bee ran a gallant race in third but was all of eight lengths further adrift. Star Of Aragon and Theatre Mill both ensured a strong pace resulting in the 13-runner field being well strung out at the line.

Hughes said, “He’s gone up a stone since he won at Listowel. He got 9lb for winning at Listowel and bits and pieces for being placed since. I thought he’d gone up too much, and this was a different class today. Bryan came in after Naas (2m4f) and said he’d love to ride him in a strongly run two-mile race. It worked!

“He’d need to improve but we might look at the Boylesports.com Handicap Hurdle at Leopardstown in January.”

Additional reporting by Gary Carson