The half-an-hour delay certainly had the desired effect with the fog lifting for the www.thurlesraces.ie Handicap Chase. Mick The Jiver (7/1) came out best after himself and another grey dominated the end of the two and three quarter miler.

"I could hear him (Smadynium, the runner-up) just at my girth there. I landed out on my nose a little bit after the last. The minute I got him gathered up again he went on again though," was David Splaine's summation of events after he'd clung on by a neck aboard Mick The Jiver. The second-placer, the market-leader, finished off well, but not quite in time to catch the victor.

Eoghan O'Grady trains the now dual Thurles winner for his father Arthur.

"A lot of credit must go to Stella McGrath who did a lot of schooling with him but is in hospital having had a bad fall at a point to point last Sunday week and I'd like to wish her well," said the successful handler.

"I'm not sure where he'll run next but he'll probably go for something similar."

(TW & EM)