Grand Jesture © Photo Healy Racing
A change of tactics reaped rewards for Grand Jesture as he landed the beginners chase at Fairyhouse.
Davy Russell made the running on the Gold Well gelding and he proved too strong for his rivals in the closing stages of the 2m5f event.
The winner was a touch lucky at the second last as he got very low but emerged none-the-worse for the mistake and galloped on dourly to assert before the final fence.
A big leap at the last sealed matters and he went on to record a six-and-a-half length success over Hit The Headlines
The Henry de Bromhead-trained winner was sent off the 5/4 favourite having been as big as 3/1 this morning.
“He stayed at it well and the change of tactics worked well,” said de Bromhead.
“He jumped well apart form the mistake two out. We just decided to change the formula and put Davy up. He gave him a good ride.
“Andrew (Lynch) did nothing wrong on him, he was only beaten half a length here by Los Amigos, but we just decided to change things on him.
“I was going to go the cross-country route with him as he's done a lot of schooling and is deadly at that but after that performance we might look at the big three-mile novice handicap at Navan in March.”
(Additional reporting by Alan Magee)
