St Denis's Well makes successful transition to fences

St Denis’s Well was yet another on the day adding to a previous success at Navan this season when taking the Gormanlough Handicap Chase to complete a double on the card for Jack Kennedy.

The Ian Donoghue-trained gelding caused a 40/1 shock when landing a handicap hurdle here back in November but attracted some support today at 13/2 when making a successful start over fences.

The son of Famous Name generally jumped well for Kennedy, although he did show a tendency to go right in the straight, and despite idling kept on well enough to beat Starlight Cato by three lengths. Fox Le Bel was a further six lengths back in third.

Kennedy was on the mark earlier aboard My Trump Card in the maiden hurdle and is now on the 91 winner mark for the season.

Donoghue said, "All the lads drink in Declans Bar in Clogherhead so they'll have a few pictures for the wall now and they are all happy men.

“He did it well and I was delighted. We were confident coming here, he's always jumped well.

“We were humming and hawing before we came to the track whether we'd run him in a point-to-point. He had jumped plenty of fences, he's probably jumped 200 fences by now, so we had no real fear that way.

“He made one little mistake and Jack said it was his own fault as he should have kept going forward on him.

“He did it easy and he might run under a penalty on Tuesday at Down Royal, we'll see how he comes out of it. Then he'll get a holiday, he'll be a stronger horse next year.”

Quotes by Gary Carson