Doonard Prince and Tom Madden (yellow) pictured on their way to victory© Photo Healy Racing
Doonard Prince recorded his third course and distance win at Naas as he took the Bet Online At thetote.com Apprentice Handicap for the second year running.
The son of Footstepsinthesand was previously trained by Liz Doyle and he was having his tenth start for trainer Ross O'Sullivan and owner John Bowden today.
Available at 16/1 this morning he opened on-course at just 9/1 before going off an 8/1 chance.
Prominent throughout under Tom Madden he was ridden to lead over a furlong out and he kept on well from there, holding off all challengers to score by half a length.
Recent Limerick winner Jealika (7/1) finished second under Donnacha O'Brien for Mark Fahey while Regal Power (33/1) was a short head back in third under Caroline Murtagh for Marcus O'Callaghan. Versilia Gal (14/1) kept on well to take fourth under Ross Coakley for Pat Martin while the 7/2 joint-favourite Barbeque could only manage fifth under Keith Moriarty for Tommy Stack. Lady Ranger was the other joint-favourite and she faded from over a furlong out, finishing eighth under Robbie Dolan for Adrian Keatley.
Ross O'Sullivan said afterwards: "There is no truer saying than horses for courses and this lad has won twice over course and distance.
"He was third at Dundalk and I probably ran him back a bit quick. He's a horse that wants about four to five weeks between runs.
"I'm delighted for the owner John Bowden. He's a retired Dublin businessman and it's his first winner. We bought the horse out of Liz Doyle's and he was second a few times for John last year.
"He came down 9lb over the winter and that gave him a chance."
Additional reporting by Alan Magee
