Hero Of The Hour repeats last years win in Down Royal sprint Successful 12 months ago, the Tom McCourt trained Hero Of The Honour made it back-to-back wins in the race when landing the Ampion Testing Across UK And Ireland Handicap at Down Royal. Coming into the contest in decent form, having finished runner-up at Bellewstown recently, the eight-year-old was well supported into 9/2 (from 13/2). Quickly into stride under James Ryan, the David Hoey owned gelding held the ideal box seat position as Havana Notion and Realtin Fantasy led the way. Pushed along to lead over a furlong out, Hero Of The Hour stayed on strongly inside the last 200 yards to hold the fast finishing Spirit Of Eagles by a length. Tom McCourt said: "I thought he was a bit unlucky (in Bellewstown), the winner got a lovely run down the rail that day. He did finish really well for second. "I couldn't believe the price he was this evening. "He went up in the weights last year for a few wins and, when he gets back to a level again, he is plenty capable of it. He did his winning up in Dundalk for George (Kingston, former trainer), he had plenty of luck with him as well. "They (horses) have been running very well now touch wood since before Bellewstown. They have hit a nice vein of form, some of them are nicely handicapped which is a big thing." Additional reporting by Michael Graham.
