Commander Of Fleet received up on the road in an exhilarating, head-bobbing end to the Coral Cup Handicap Hurdle below a well-judged trip from 5lb claimer Shane Fitzgerald.
The Gordon Elliott-trained winner, despatched off at 50-1, was one of many few assured to benefit from the testing floor and large area, having received a 23-runner handicap at Navan in early December.
The Jessica Harrington-trained Ashdale Bob set wise fractions in entrance for the circumstances and was nonetheless going effectively in entrance turning for house, leaping the final three lengths away from his 22 rivals.
Nonetheless, the stamina-sapping floor proved his undoing. Jack Foley’s mount drained quickly after, as Fastorslow and Commander Of Fleet bore down on the seven-year-old, who pale shortly, ultimately ending third, an extra 5 and a half lengths behind the entrance two within the two-miles-five-furlong contest.
Darragh O’Keefe’s mount seemed to have gotten the higher of the scrap to the road and in a titanic battle, briefly received his head in entrance, just for Commander Of Fleet to get his head down when it mattered to attain by a brief head.
Camprond who was all the time stalking the tempo, didn’t discover a lot from the second-last and completed fourth.
The victory was the primary for Elliott on the Competition after lacking final 12 months’s assembly because of the suspension he was given when a picture emerged on social media of him sitting on a useless horse on his gallops.
