The longest race in the hunter chase calendar was short on quality, but had more than enough well-known veterans in the field to please regular followers of this type of racing.

Last year's winner Gallik Dawn had failed to score in the intervening12 months, but had not performed badly and with the ground coming in his favour was sent off favourite. Turning for home he looked sure to collect having gone at least ten lengths clear, but found disappointingly little when push came to shove, and HIPPOCKET reeled him in.

The winner had not scored under rules since two victories at Downpatrick dating back five years and more, but he was third in Cannon Bridge's race at this fixture last year, and ran a respectable race when a close third to multiple winner Lady Myfanwy in a Bangor hunter chase on heavy earlier this season.

Aitchjayem was no match for the first two, but held a prominent position early and ran his best race. Former winner No Retreat is now 15 and not the force of old, but ran another game race, while Noakarad De Verzee has been an excellent ally for his novice owner/rider in the past two seasons, and again provided him with a safe round.

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