Fifty bags the money again in Fortria Found A Fifty bagged a brilliant hat-trick in the BAR 1 Betting Fortria Chase at Navan this afternoon. The Gordon Elliott-trained gelding went to post a 11/4 shot in the two-miler as he aimed to repeat his victory in the last two runnings of the Grade 2 contest. Jack Kennedy’s mount cruised into the lead, from front-runner Solness, going to the second last fence and had things under control from there. The nine-year-old was big over the penultimate fence and was soon asked for his effort, galloping on well late on to post a length-and-a-half success over staying-on stablemate Touch Me Not. It was a double on the card for Elliott and Kennedy, following the earlier win of Thinkitdontjinxit. Elliott said: "He's some horse! He always gets us out of trouble, in fairness to him. "I was a bit nervous before the race - I said he's not getting any younger, but Navan is Noel and Valerie's (Moran, Bective Stud) local track and we said we would target everything for it. We are a little bit light this year and that one there is very important. That will make the week good now. "He jumped a little bit right down the back straight and I was a bit worried, but I was sort of happy when Solness dropped out of it and there was nothing on his outside. "In fairness to him, he was very, very gutsy — it’s a great performance and I’m delighted. "This was the plan and we have him in the Hilly Way (Cork) and we will see what way the ground is. He won it last year. He seems to be better early in the season than late on. "We will enjoy today, but we hope he wins plenty more this season. He has done us proud now for the season and we are very happy with him. If he comes back and wins it next year, we will be delighted." Owner Noel Moran added: "It is great to get a winner in Navan. We always target trying to get a winner here. "In fairness, he's some horse - that's three years in a row now. "It helped alright (Majborough being withdrawn), let's be honest about it. You want to run against good horses, and it is not nice to see good horses not running but, still, we will take that today." (Quotes by Michael Graham)
