Bright aims to shine for Hughes Bright New Dawn bids to add a second Graded win over fences to his name in the Naas Directors Plate Novice Chase on Sunday where the the Gigginstown House Stud-owned runner faces five opponents. The Dessie Hughes-trained gelding was a Grade Two winner over hurdles last season and emulated that achievement with a comfortable seven-length win over Mallowney at Navan last month. Hughes remains hopeful of another big run and said: "He has been running well and his last run at Navan was good. If he repeats that he'll go close." Bright New Dawn gives weight away to his opponents and in theory is 2lb 'wrong' with the Jimmy Mangan-trained Letter Of Credit. The nine-year-old has blossomed recently, with his last five outings coming at Thurles, most recently where he picked up a conditions race last month. Mangan said: "If this race was in Thurles I'd give him a serious chance. "Saying that, he has got his jumping together recently and I'm expecting a good run. His jumping has improved in the smaller fields which suit him better and are the key to him. Maybe he was getting a bit blinded in the big-field races and things were not looking so good after he had a few falls, but thankfully that is behind him now." The Peter Fahey-trained Owega Star has been absent since October but, with a rating of 134, is a notable runner, while Mullaghanoe River represents a previously out-of-sorts Noel Meade stable but does receive plenty of weight from some of the better-fancied runners.
