My Manekineko (Mike O'Connor) upsides Hear No Evil at the last© Photo Healy Racing
The Navan Members Veterans Handicap Chase provided a stirring finish with the 13-year-old My Manekineko just getting the better of Hear No Evil close home.
There were plenty still in contention going to the penultimate fence but it was the two principals that eventually settled down to battle it out after the last.
Mike O’Connor, deputising for Gavin Brouder who was sidelined after a fall at Clonmel on Thursday, got a good tune out of My Manekineko on the run-in with the 12/1 chnace striking the front in the closing strides to score by a neck. De Name Escapes Me could find no extra on the run-in a further five lengths away in third.
Winning trainer James Nash said, "That's great, I thought the ground would be too dead for him. I fancied him from the entry stage.
“I thought he ran fine in the claimer and thought he had a bit more spark than a few of the horses that were fancied in the race and a lovely weight.
“Gavin got a fall on Thursday, he rode out this morning but didn't pass the doctor here. Mike won on him before so it was great that he was able to ride him and claim the 5lb as well.
“He's a great old horse, I was hoping he'd run well here and go back to the north for the race he won last year, in three weeks time.
“We'll see if we go back, we're only taking it day to day with him.
“He's hilarious, we worked a few young horses with him about ten days ago and I went back into the car sick as he was after beating them all. It just goes to show he still has an engine.
“That was great because he definitely wouldn't like that ground, there was a time he wouldn't have gone on it at all. It was a great bonus.”
My Manekineko has now run 113 times winning nine races and placed over 30 times.
(GC & AM)
