The sunbets.co.uk Handicap run at Wolverhampton on December 2 is proving just the trial for the Dundalk Stadium Apprentice Handicap at Dundalk this evening, as division two of today's contest was won by Rosenborg Rider who led home a 1-2 for trainer Ado McGuinness.

Rosenborg Rider was one of two well backed McGuinness trained runners in the race and while many were on runner-up Free To Roam (4/1 this morning and returned the heavily backed 13/8 favourite), winner Free To Roam was himself backed from 14/1 this morning in to 8/1 at the off.

Jockey Denis Lenihan steered the winner to a two and a quarter lengths win over stablemate Free To Roam.

Rosenborg Rider had previously finished seventh in a lowly handicap at Wolverhampton last Saturday and, remarkably, that contest also featured sixth-placed Secret Memories who won the half hour earlier first division of today's race.

Afterwards McGuinness stated “it was a recovery mission after last week but I was confident after seeing Secret Memories winning as he finished right in front of us last week.

“He's been a little bit disappointing because he's a lot better than what he is; he ran a couple of good solid races through the summer then petered out. We then said we'd keep him going here to see if we could get a win out of him.

“Stephen Thorne, my head lad, bought him for a bunch of his friends (Shamrock Thoroughbreds Syndicate) so I was under a little bit of pressure! He's happy and Mikey, who drives the lorry for me and is Stephen's uncle, is also involved so it's a big family affair.”

Quotes from Gary Carson