Balakan won the Naul Novice Chase under a very confident ride by Paddy Flood and trained by Michael Halford and owned by the Conn Syndicate. Balakan who took the lead before the last stayed on well to win by 1 length.

Mick said ´ was looking forward to seeing him jump, he has great scope. Ideally we´d want better ground, he has been a great servant to us, owners will most likely want to return to galway with him, but he performs better on more level tracks.´