Le Frimeur too strong for 'home' team in Novice Grade 1 Unbeaten in three previous starts, the Harry Derham trained Le Frimeur maintained his perfect record when causing an 18/1 upset in the Grade 1 Channor Real Estate Group Novice Hurdle at Punchestown. A Nenagh point-to-point winner when in the care of Pat Doyle, the gelding made a winning racecourse debut for owners Simon Munir and Isaac Souede at Chepstow in November. Having made it three-from-three on his return at Newbury last month, the five-year-old was faced with a significant step up in class here. Travelling strongly throughout under JJ Slevin, Le Frimeur headed Espresso Milan two out, finding plenty when challenged by Zanoosh on the run to the last. Despite his relative inexperience, Le Frimeur stayed on strongly on the run-in to score by six-and-a-half lengths. “It’s a cliché but I genuinely dream about training Grade 1 winners,” said Derham. “It’s absolutely unreal. Obviously it makes it an awful lot easier with very good horses. “Simon actually grabbed me on the arm at this meeting last year and said he was going to send me this horse. “To have the access to horses like this is something unbelievable. “He got a little setback in the Autumn and he’s just improved and improved all spring. “We had no idea how good he was coming here and I’m still not sure we do to be honest. “JJ said he did plenty wrong in the race and he’s beaten a quality field well. It’s absolutely unreal. “We obviously believed in the horse a lot or less we wouldn’t have brought him here. JJ thought three miles was the right thing to do and it’s absolutely unreal.” Paddy Power went 33/1 Le Frimeur for the Brown Advisory Novices' Chase. Additional reporting by Gary Carson.
