Canal End gives Fahey a welcome boost in Navan feature Canal End chose a good pot to open his account over fences when finishing strongly to land the €60,000 Irish Stallion Farms EBF Novice Handicap Chase Final at Navan. Trained by Peter Fahey for JP McManus, the son of Walk In The Park was sent off the well backed 4/1 favourite but appeared to have plenty to do early in the straight. Hillsdale was still in contention when falling at the penultimate fence and it was from this point that Canal End really got motoring. Mark Walsh’s mount landed in front after the last and stayed to great effect ultimately winning by a comfortable four and a half lengths. Cheerful Chap just held on to the runner-up spot with Prince Palace a neck back in third. Fahey said, “I’m delighted, we haven’t had the best of seasons so it’s great for a horse like him to come out and do something in a nice race like that. “It’s a great end to the season and I’m looking forward to getting him out again. “The whole way through the race I was never really happy with him. It was only from the back of the last that he really found loads and stayed at it. “We’ll try and find another chase for him between Fairyhouse and Punchestown. “We mapped out today after his run in Naas the last day. The ground was very heavy there and Mark said he didn’t really travel in it, but he galloped the whole way to the line. “We said we’d go for this race, with it being a novice handicap. Whether we keep him to novice handicaps, we’ll see. We’ll speak to Frank and JP and see what they want to do.” Quotes by Gary Carson
