Frawley got his jumping career off to a winning start when justifying 5/4 favouritism in the opening two mile maiden hurdle at Navan.
The John Kiely-trained gelding has been off the course since finishing third to Cue Card in the 2010 Weatherbys Champion Bumper at the Cheltenham Festival.
However he showed no great ill effects of the 18 months lay-off here, overcoming a bad blunder at the second last when Barry Geraghty did well to keep the patnership intact.
The six-year-old gelding was soon back on an even keel, and struck the front on the run-in to beat Flycorn (7/1) comfortably in the end by a length and three quarters. Pride Of The Arctic (7/1) was a further three and three quarter lengths adrift in third.
Kiely said, “He was always a nice horse and unfortunately, or fortunately, he got a bit of time. He was a bit fresh today, and he didn't do all his jumping. I hope he'll go on and we'll take it step by step.”
Alan Magee
