Arthur Moore's rich run of from continued and Mansony further enhanced his reputation as a top two-mile chaser when landing the Grade 1 Paddy Power Dial-A-Bet Chase at Leopardstown, on day two of the track's Christmas Festival.
Last year's Punchestown Champion Chaser was sent off the 2/1 joint favourite under Davy Russell and despite tending to jump to his right on occasions, the eight-year-old ran out a one length victor from joint favourite Nickname who was running on ground which was no doubt on the quick side for the French bred mud lark.
Afterwards Arthur Moore said, 'He is ready to go to the Victor Chandler now and we will have to take on Twist Magic and whoever else but I am looking forward to it. He is possibly better going right handed but the fact he was in front for so long may have been the cause of him jumping to his right.'
Moore concluded, 'Punchestown at the end of the season would have to be on his agenda and it is highly possible that he will go to Cheltenham.'
That was the second leg of a double for Ireland's current leading rider after the Cork native landed the opener on the Aido McGuinness trained Beau Michael who made every inch of the running in the three-year-old hurdle.
20/1 shot Whatuthink landed the paddypower.com Future Champions Novice Hurdle with an all the way success under jockey Conor O'Dwyer. The Oliver McKiernan trained five-year-old was immediately sent to the front and was still travelling the best of his eight rivals when the field went in pursuit.
Forpaddydeplaster finished the closest, a length and half back in second, and the well backed even money favourite Cork All Star could only manage third.
A shin injury nearly ruled the winner out of the race according to the winning handler, 'He had sore shins up until about three weeks ago when we got it right and we were in two minds whether to run him or not. I suppose it was slightly unexpected as I thought the trip would be too short for him, but he travelled well from start to finish.'
The winner is now due to return to Leopardstown for the January meeting, 'We probably will come back here but I would love to get him over two and a half miles but we will probably go for the Deloitte and take it from there.'
The Paddy Power Chase provided Tony Martin with yet another big handicap success as Newbay Prop got up in the shadows of the post to deny Sound Witness by a head under stand in jockey Ross Geraghty. Robbie Colgan was due to ride the 14/1 shot who was in off bottom weight of 9st10lbs but the jockey based with Martin suffered a suspected broken jaw at Down Royal 24-hours earlier and had to watch from the sidelines as Geraghty recorded his biggest success since landing the 2002 Irish Grand National on The Bunny Boiler and his first win of this current season.
Speaking after the race Martin said that the last run of Newbay Prop at Navan still has him baffled, 'He ran a nice race on his return at Punchestown but we will just have to put a line through the last day as I still to this day haven't found out why he ran so bad.'
Thursday's winner was on the way to running a nice race in last years renewal when Martin said he was more confident, 'He travelled very well last year and I thought he was very unlucky. I thought the ground was too quick for him today and I feel sorry for Robbie (Colgan) who is a great lad.'
A good day for the Geraghty family was topped off half an hour later when Barry partnered the Willie Mullins trained Share Option to a length and three quarter length success from the 13/8 favourite Offshore Account.
Sophocles put himself into the frame for a second trip to the Cheltenham festival when scrapping his maiden tag at the second time of asking in a workmanlike performance in the hands of David Casey. The James Leavy trained grey son of In The Wings was second behind Cork All Star in the Champion Bumper at Cheltenham last March and the four-year-old pleased the winning trainer at his first attempt over the sticks a month previous.
'We are delighted to get his maiden out of the way and I was very happy with his run at Gowran Park, even though he was beaten ten-lengths it was to a good horse (Shazand) as we saw yesterday. David (Casey) said that the quicker they went, the better he travelled and jumped and all roads lead towards Cheltenham in March.'
