Springt De La Mare progressing well over fences Springt De La Mare was produced by Keith Donoghue to land the rated novice chase at Punchestown a shade comfortably. The grey son of No Risk At All made good headway in third after the penultimate fence in his pursuit of Western Diego and Rath Gaul Boy, and Donoghue pushed him along into contention in the home straight. The 9/2 chance stayed on to lead just before the last and a good jump sealed the spoils in this two miler. He jumped it well and extended on the run-in to score by a handy three lengths from the gambled-on Western Diego (13/2 - 4/1). Springt De La Mare is now two from two over fences to go with a point-to-point success and a bumper victory at Navan. Gavin Cromwell said: “He jumped really well and it was a good performance. “I was just saying to Keith there that we couldn’t win a maiden hurdle with him, but he’s taken to this better. He jumps really well and got through that ground well. “He won his bumper and looked like he was going to be very smart, but he just lost his way a little bit in the middle part of his career. Hopefully, we’re back on track. “The handicapper will have a bit of a say with that. He doesn’t qualify for some of the bigger handicaps yet, with only two runs, so I’m not really sure where we go now. “This was the only race for him and it’s very hard to place those horses.” There was a minute's silence before this race in honour of Michael O'Sullivan. Additional reporting by Gary Carson
