Found A Fifty secures Fortria hat-trick

Found A Fifty returned with a bang to secure a third successive BAR 1 Betting Fortria Chase win at Navan.

Multiple Grade One winner Solness set a decent gallop at the head of the field before the race got serious as they rounded the bend for home.

The Gordon Elliott-trained Found A Fifty hit the front two out as Solness weakened and extended his lead approaching the last and saw it out well ahead of stablemate Touch Me Not by one and a half lengths for Jack Kennedy.

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 was a great performance, I’m delighted.

“This was the plan and we have him in the Hilly Way (at 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.”

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“It helped all right (Majborough being withdrawn), let’s be honest about it.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.”