What a difference a day makes

Prior to racing on Thursday, Gavin Cromwell hadn't trained a winner in Ireland this (0 from 44). However, that all changed at Gowran Park with the Cheltenham Gold Cup winning handler sending out a treble, including Now Is The Hour in the feature event the Thyestes Chase. A Grade 2 winning novice hurdler, the nine year old was getting off the mark at the tenth attempt over fences and is a second season chaser. Promising conditional Eoin Staples was partnering the Westerner gelding for the first time and he galvanised his mount after the last to reel in Better Times Ahead in the shadows of the post. Scoring by a head, the pair pulled nearly twenty lengths clear of the third. In gruelling conditions, only five of the runners completed. Once again Quai De Bourbon didn't show what he is capable of pulling up before the last. Brian Hayes mount raced handily but a number of sluggish jumps down the backstraight saw him begin to struggle. Having got back into the contest approaching the third last, he faded thereafter. His jumping needs to be much sharper, which is likely on better ground. Champion trainer Willie Mullins ran five in an event he has won ten times in the past with the quintet producing form figures of URPPFP.

Starmount was found a golden opportunity to record his second win over hurdles at Wetherby and Ben Pauling's youngster didn't disappoint with an easy success in the two miles novice hurdle. A winning Irish pointer for Jonathan Fogarty, the Mount Nelson gelding features in Declan Phelan's Irish Pointers section in OJA and, having won decisively at the A1 track on his Rules debut in December, he came up short in the Grade 1 Formby Novices' Hurdle at Aintree on Boxing Day. Eased in class here, he is ready for a return to better company. Ben Jones' mount made all jumping slickly and outclassing his eleven opponents. A fifteen lengths scorer, he is a likeable type who will make a smashing novice chaser next season.