The 2/9 favourite Sole Pretender had to work hard for victory in the two-mile novice chase before eventually seeing off the persistent challenge of Ferdia by three lengths.

The latter kept tabs on Sole Pretender, who had enjoyed an uncontested lead in last month's impressive chasing debut win at Ballinrobe, until getting the second-last wrong which allowed the long odds-on favourite to take command.

Simon Torrens rode the winner for Gort trainer Norman Lee.

“I'm delighted with him. We got a bit of a shock at the bottom of the straight but he still went and did his job,” said Lee.

“John Ryan's horse (Ferdia) isn't a bad horse. Our lad will come on from that again and we'll see where we go now.

“He might go for the Grimes Hurdle or maybe to Galway for the novice chase on the Thursday.

“It wasn't as easy as you'd expect but he still got it done.

“He's still learning over fences and it was grand to have a horse rattle down over them with him there as the fences are a bit bigger here than in Ballinrobe.

“He won his race snugly in the end. You'd be thinking that a race is average but when you go and try to win them they are not that average. We're happy out with him.”

Quotes from Gary Carson