Articulum makes every yard© Photo Healy Racing
The market got it right in the three runner novice chase at Naas as Articulum made all for victory.
He was well supported in the morning for this two-mile contest as odds-on-favourite Campeador drifted.
It was a similar story at the track as the winner was backed down to even-money as Campeador eased out to 9/10f.
Articulum had Campeador in trouble after the second-last and started to draw clear coming to the final fence.
He bounded away on the run-in to win by seven and a half lengths.
Trainer Terence O’Brien said: “He always showed us a lot but he’s had his wind problems and we’ve done a bit of touching up and doctoring over the last year or two.
“I was very close to pulling him out today as I thought the ground was too lively for him. I weighed him this morning and he’s 578 kilos. He’s a big horse but we needed to get a run in as we skipped Christmas thinking it would be softer here.
“Hopefully we’ll go to Leopardstown and take on Grade One company. David was very happy with him and thought there was plenty of horse left.
"He won his bumper over 2m3f and point-to-point over three miles but David Splaine rode him over hurdles last year and said he has fierce pace for two miles.
“I’ll probably leave him at two miles and we can always go up again. I think there is more improvement in him, and hopefully he’ll be sound in the morning.
“Last year he started in a blaze of glory and petered out very quickly. This year we are training him a little differently and the horses are healthier as well which helps.”
Additional reporting by Alan Magee
