Dorans Pride made a winning comeback after his dismal showing in the Pertemps King George VI Chase at Kempton when defying top weight at Navan in the Proudstown Hurdle today.
Conceding 2st plus Philip Carberry's 5lb allowance to the runner-up Gentle Mossy, Dorans Pride showed plenty of enthusiasm for a sustained duel with Gentle Mossy in the closing stages to record his 26th victory over jumps, plus one on the Flat and a point-to-point.
'He's had his knockers, but he's a super horse. Find me another one like him,' said winning trainer Michael Hourigan whose son Paul was on board.
'He is a bit rusty because he hasn't raced over hurdles for about three years, but he battled on well for me,' said Hourigan jnr.
Dorans Pride, who won the Bonusprint Stayers' Hurdle in 1995, will be entered for the 2000 renewal of the race according to trainer Hourigan who conceded: 'There is something bothering him when he jumps fences. You don't go from as good as he was to how bad he looked jumping them at Kempton without something being amiss, but we don't know because he can't tell us.'
'We will enter him in the Stayers' Hurdle and he might run next in a conditions hurdle at Naas at the end of the month because he would be well treated by the race conditions, then we will see where we take it from there,' the trainer concluded.
The honours at the meeting undoubtedly went to former champion trainer Arthur Moore and his in-form stable jockey Conor O'Dwyer.
Zourito had luck on his side to initiate the treble in the EBF Beginners Chase when the odds-on favourite Valley Erne came down two out when about a length in front and seemingly going the better of the pair.
But Well Ridden won as an odds-on shot should in the Navan Novice Hurdle while Phariwarmer, despite drifting from odds-on to evens, completed the hat-trick with the minimum of fuss in the Mullacurry Maiden hurdle in the colours of JP McManus. -PA
