Road To Respect winning under Sean Flanagan© Photo Healy Racing
Gigginstown had a one-two-three in the beginners' chase at Naas but not in market order as Road To Respect sprang a surprise.
Sean Flanagan 's mount travelled well to get on terms with the under pressure Keppols Queen at the penultimate fence.
Road To Respect (12/1) took over upon landing and moved clear coming to the last. He jumped it well and was ridden out to account for the staying on 9/10 favourite Prince Of Scars
This was Road To Respect's first start for Noel Meade.
There was two and a half lengths between them at the finish and the winner landed a touch from an opening show of 20/1.
It was the same gap back to General Principle in third at 10/1.
Noel Meade said: “He’s a lovely horse. Eoin (Griffin) had him last year and I feel sorry for him. I’d say he’s matured a lot and got a bit stronger.
“He’s a nice horse. He jumps well. He would have needed that a bit as we didn’t really do that much with him.
“We just thought we’d let him come to himself because last year we thought he had a couple of very hard races in his first couple of races against real good horses.
“We were hoping that he’d run well but I wasn’t saying he was going to win.
“I’ll have to wait and see where we slot in now. There is no reason why he wouldn’t run in the Drinmore. There were probably good horses there behind him.
“I know Sandra’s horse (Acapella Bourgeois) was gone and it’s probably too short for Gordon’s (Prince Of Scars) but it was still a reasonable race and I think he should come on from it.” Acapella Bourgeois fell at the first in this contest.
Additional reporting by Gary Carson
