Ryan and Brouder grab brace with Chief Seattle

It was doubles all round in Ballinrobe for John Ryan and Kevin Brouder when Chief Seattle surged home from an unpromising position in the John Rochford Memorial Handicap Chase.

He was only just in the TV screen jumping the second last in ninth place in this 2m7f assignment.

Brouder exercised him arms and his mount responded as he made progress into fourth at the last but they were still a long shot as Garrai Phaidin and The Eye Of Tulla tussled for victory on the run-in.

Chief Seattle found another leg well into the run-in and rattled home to nail the aforementioned pair.

He scored by half a length at 4/1 from 18/1 shot Garrai Phaidin. The Eye Of Tulla dropped a length and a half further back in third at 40/1. Three Loud Knocks completed the places in fourth at 12/1.

Ryan said: "He's a smashing horse, I've been playing him along. He's big ignorant horse at home. I've been running him and running him, he's only been ridden out about four times in the last three weeks because he's been racing so much.

"He's trained off the field, he's nearly impossible to train and is hard to manage at home. Liam Quinlan has done a lot of good work with him.

"Kevin Brouder gave him an absolute peach there.

"My daughter Gillian, who is a biopharmaceutical engineer, does an awful lot of work in the yard and I must pay tribute to her. She has all the horses extremely healthy. Even when the horses were off form for a while, she didn't panic and she got them right again. In fairness, a lot of my success is due to Gillian."

Additional reporting by Mark Nunan