Pat Doyle and Derek O'Connor - trainer and rider of Sydney Paget© Photo Healy Racing
Pat Doyle has the Foxhunters at Cheltenham in mind for his Sydney Paget after he won the Ballywalter Farms Open at Ballinaboola on Sunday.
Second on his debut for Doyle at Dromahane in March of 2011, the son of Flemensfirth was then sent to Donald McCain.
He won six races for McCain and returned to Doyle late last year, winning a point-to-point at Rockfield in November.
He finished runner-up to the smart Two Rockers at Boulta on his last start and he was well-fancied to get back to winning ways here.
Prominent throughout, the Roger O’Byrne owned nine-year-old had a good battle with Need To Know from after the last, just getting up to prevail by a neck under Derek O’Connor.
Pat Doyle said afterwards: "He is a decent horse, he probably wasn’t as fresh as I would like him today, I think I can get him better than that.
"The horse that beat him in Boulta is a pretty good horse and we had to give him five pound. I would say he is up there with the best of them hunter chasers.
"I was going to run him in the Thyestes and I was going to run him in the Paddy Power. He could run a good race and finish fifth but he couldn’t go back point-to-pointing. After today though we still have options.
"The second (Need To Know - unbeaten in three previous course runs) is a fair horse.
"We will make an entry for the Foxhunters, freshen him up and we'll see."
"His owner is based in America. He was over and stayed an extra week this time to see him running - he loves this horse."
