Groundhog day for Paddy's Milestone Paddy's Milestone (9/1) repeats the feat of winning the BAR 1 Betting 'Bet 10 Get 50' Handicap Hurdle at Navan over two miles and five furlongs. The seven-year-old has obviously been fragile after having only nine runs, but he is talented, as he won a Down Royal hurdle before going on to win this race last year by two lengths. He got 17 lbs from the handicapper for that success. Now reassessed, Stuart Crawford's victor was 7 lbs above his last winning mark and was given a very patient ride by Sam Ewing. The Landmark Syndicate-owned gelding made great headway when pushed along between the final two obstacles, and he picked up the clear leader, Matt Connor, over 100 yards out. He kept on well to win by a length and a half. 11/4 favourite Mart Lane also got caught a bit far back and stayed on for third, beaten seven and a half lengths. Stuart Crawford said: "Hard to believe, you would think I was targeting it! "That's the third year in a row that he has won first time out. "I'm delighted - good syndicate and knocked a lot of sport out of that today. "Sam gave him a great ride. They went a strong gallop early on and I'd say it probably played into his hands the way he decided to ride it today. "Sam is very good riding a race anyway, but I love to see him riding it like that - giving a horse a chance to find his feet in a race. "The syndicate are all local to me, and they have been involved in horses of some description for a long, long time. It is sweet when it is people you know and are friendly with when you get a big win for them on a day like today. "I Love My Baie has been a good horse; he has probably lost his way a little bit. Carrying plenty of weight in this race and maybe got sucked into racing a wee bit early on in the straight. That has maybe cost him in the last 100 yards or so, but it is a good start to the season. Hopefully, we can find something for him." Additional reporting by Michael Graham.
