Flame Bearer prevents punters getting fingers burned

Flame Bearer had to overcome adversity to justify his prohibitive odds in the Tom Quinlan Electrical Novice Hurdle at Fairyhouse.

Trained by Pat Doyle and ridden by his son Jack, the seven-year-old was the 5-4 favourite to complete his hat-trick in the Grade Two contest following wins at Fairyhouse and Naas earlier in the year.

Carrying a 6lb penalty for his first Grade Two win, Flame Bearer made a mistake at the final flight in the back straight, but was still travelling well on the heels of the leaders rounding the home turn.

His supporters will have been sweating after Doyle went for a run up the inside of Ha D'Or and Paul Townend and found the door slammed firmly shut in his face.

He was again short of room jumping the final flight, but managed to get himself out of trouble on the run-in and got up to beat Ha D'Or by a neck, with The Tide Turns two and a half lengths away in third.

"He's some horse and he got me out of trouble there today," said the winning rider.

"On that quicker ground his jumping probably wasn't as good. He's never jumped at that speed in his life and he'll have learned a lot again today.

"He's a horse with a very big engine. I got pushed in and then I had to try to get down Paul's inner, but that was never going to happen.