Fredsmemory holds off Very Vite© Photo Healy Racing
Fredsmemory sprang a 20/1 shock on his debut in the concluding bumper at Navan.
Local trainer Finbar Hand saddled the newcomer by Dr Massini and his charge stuck on well in the closing stages to land the spoils.
Gareth Malone produced his mount to claim front-runner Butney Boy over two furlongs out but he had to battle to shake off that foe.
The Willie Mullins-trained Very Vite was well punted to score on his return from a 959-day absence and looked a big threat inside the final furlong.
The hotpot couldn't find a way past the outsider, however, who stuck his neck out to score by a length.
Hand trains the winner for his wife Karen and said afterwards:-
"We've been waiting three years on this fella and bought him as a three-year-old at Goffs.
"He's a bit quirky and showed that at the start today. We ran him in a schooling race in the spring and he went very well so we knew we had something but he got a hairline fracture of the knee.
"He's a real nice horse and was only about 80 per cent fit today but he was 100 per cent healthy which is the main thing."
(Additional reporting by Alan Magee)
