The Highway Rat finds his niche

The Highway Rat (9/2, from 7s this morning) blitzed his rivals from the front in the Crowne Plaza Hotel Dundalk 3-y-o Handicap.

The Dandy Man colt, under topweight of 9st 12lbs, broke smartly under Ronan Whelan and soon disputed the lead.

He went on entering the straight and had everything else in trouble over a furlong from home.

From that point, the winner extended his advantage all the way to the line, with seven lengths the winning margin in the end from Fine Distraction (22/1) in second.

It was a successful first run over the minimum distance for The Highway Rat, a debut winner over 7f here in January before being too keen in his next couple of starts over that trip.

Winning trainer Andy Oliver said: He won well. We brought him back to sprint trips, we realised after Leopardstown (weakened to finish 12th) that that was maybe his forte.

“We saw this race and it worked out well. He did it very well but it remains to be seen just how solid the form is.

'I'm very happy and Ronan gave him a nice straightforward ride.

“He won first time out in a maiden where nobody knows what they are at, you can have a conservative pace and come with a bit of a flourish.

“When we put him into handicap company he was just revved and set to go, so we thought about bringing him back and he's developing into a sprinter.

He has strength and power and he's relaxing. We thought this was the way to go and it's worked out today.”

Quotes from Gary Carson