Fairytale first winner for Simon Condon

The 2m7f handicap hurdle went to 40/1 chance Eat the Book in the hands of his owner Simon Condon, who works in healthcare and was enjoying his first winner at the age of 59.

The lightly-raced nine-year-old was placed in three maiden hurdles last year.

Here, he was dropped right out before making steady headway on the final circuit. After moving into second on the run to the final flight, the Court Cave gelding swept past A Different World on the run-in to score by four and a half lengths. Good World was eight lengths further back in third.

Winning trainer David Dunne said: "It's unbelievable. Simon is nearly 60 years of age and he rides out for me. I thought it was half mad that he was riding him in a hurdle race!”

“For the first two laps I was saying 'what is he doing' but maybe they just went too quick.

“We've liked this horse a lot and I was disappointed with how he was running up to here.

“He probably just needed to be upped in trip but he shows loads of pace at home. Hopefully he steps on from that.

“He's not a novice in a few weeks so we'll look at another handicap for him somewhere.

“He'll make a lovely chaser around the likes of these tracks. Simon didn't want to run him around a tight track and I've been trying to convince him for years that the horse wanted good ground.”

Quotes from Gary Carson