Dedigout eases to victory under Davy Russell© Photo Healy Racing
After disappointing on his last two starts, Dedigout bounced back to his best as he took the Grade 3 Naas Directors Plate Novice Chase in impressive fashion.
The Grade 1 winning hurdler won on his first start over fences at Punchestown in November and then finished second in the Drinmore at Fairyhouse behind Arvika Ligeonniere.
He then disappointed on his next two outings at Leopardstown and Navan over trips of three miles and two mile one respectively.
Running over two and a half miles today, he raced towards the rear for much of the contest as You Must Know Me attempted to make all.
Dedigout jumped well throughout and closed up as they approached the straight. He hit the front in between the last two fences before stretching clear on the run-in to score by seven and a half lengths under Davy Russell.
Having opened at 11/4 overnight with Paddy Powers, he opened on track at just 2/1 before being backed into 7/4 clear favourite at the off.
You Must Know Me ran a fine race to finish second at 5/2 under Andrew Lynch for Henry De Bromhead while the overnight favourite Twinlight (3/1) could only manage fourth under David Casey for Willie Mullins.
Winning trainer Tony Martin said afterwards: "He was unlucky at Leopardstown as he missed the second fence and he lost his confidence. The whole way down the back he was bad and if we had the time again he should have been pulled up.
"He went to Navan then but he hadn’t got over Leopardstown. We schooled him plenty since Navan and it worked out well today.
"All I wanted was him to come here today and to do what he did.
"He likes that ground and he is ground dependant. We will leave it a week or two now and see how the ground goes. He might surprise us on good ground and we might have to try him on it in Punchestown or Fairyhouse."
Additional reporting by Gary Carson
