Veteran Sir Ector enjoyed his first victory since November 2013 when delivering in the extended two mile seven handicap hurdle at Sligo.

The 10-year-old was ridden into the lead by Paul Townend after the second last and kept up the gallop to close the race out by three lengths at 6/1. King Blue (9/2) kept on in second without threatening the winner.

Trainer Nicole McKenna said: “When we came up the road we were actually going to pull him out as we saw so much rain coming.

“He had lost his way there for a while; it’s a few years since he has won. He is a bit older now so he has got cuter. I think the small field kind of helped him. I was glad to see a few horses came out so we ran him.

“We were worried about the ground, we would have liked yielding to soft but obviously he has handled it. We are happy. He was a good horse in his day so we are glad for the horse and glad for ourselves.”

Additional reporting by Gary Carson