In Your Shadow defies long layoff to win for Meade and Cooper

In Your Shadow belied the lack of a recent outing when keeping on best to claim the Paul Byron Shoes Handicap Hurdle at Roscommon.

Absent for 670 days, the Noel Meade trained gelding showed no rustiness on his first start since finishing fourth at Clonmel in October 2020.

Bryan Cooper delivered the eight-year-old with a well-timed challenge to lead after the last and go on to win snugly.

It was an excellent training performance by Noel Meade to have the gelding at his peak after such a break.

“He has been fired since his last run and just when he was ready to come back before Christmas he cracked his pelvis so he's had plenty of it,” said Meade.

“I'm a bit surprised to be honest that he was ready enough for that. When I saw the soft ground I thought it would catch him out as he likes goodish ground. It's probably not that deep.

“He gave him a beautiful ride, just kept holding on to him.

“He will go back over fences and he should be a nice chaser. He mightn't like it real heavy but he has a lot of scope and jumps well.”

Additional reporting by Gary Carson