Captain Guinness produced a fine round of jumping in the hands of Racheal Blackmore to take the Sean P. Muldoon & Patrick F. Gormley Fortria Chase at Navan.
The cause of Henry de Bromhead’s seven-year-old was made easier by a wrath of withdrawals on account of the ground, with those to defect including likely favourite Ferny Hollow. But there was no faulting the display from the high-class chaser who was registering his first Grade Two success.
Always to the fore, Captain Guinness led along the four that went top post for the most part and looked set to face a strong challenge from 10-11 favourite Riviere d’Etel as the race reached the business end.
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However, Jack Kennedy’s mount made a crushing error at the second-last and that was enough for Blackmore and Captain Guinness to capitalise and build up a race-winning advantage.
To her credit, Riviere d’Etel rallied strongly after the last, but could not catch the game winner, who was shortened into 16-1 from 33-1 for the Tingle Creek at Sandown with Betfair.
De Bromhead said: “He had done a lot of work for this, we had targeted it during the summer and it seemed the right race for him.
“He’s some horse to leap and she (Blackmore) is an amazing lady.
“Absolutely (a big day in him), he’s a really good horse and was giving away plenty of weight. We’ve yet to win a Grade One (with him), it is something we would like to achieve.
“I think we will maybe enter him in the Tingle Creek, he seems to really enjoy it around there (third last year). We’ll see, we will enjoy today most importantly.”
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