Castle taking it easy

RATHMORE Castle is having a well-deserved mid-season break until February following his hard-fought victory at Navan last month.

The five-year-old gave trainer Maureen Danagher her biggest success in three years with a licence when holding Gem Daly by a head in the Grade Three Monksfield Novice Hurdle.

“He’s having a break until mid-February. He was doing brilliantly, but he’s had a few runs too quick.

“We were going to run him yesterday in Navan, but decided against it,” she said.

“There are a couple of novice hurdles coming up in February, then he’ll go to Fairyhouse in March and to Punchestown in April. He’s not going to Cheltenham, not this year.”

Rathmore Castle had been given a quote of 25-1 for the Ballymore Properties Novices’ Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival after his latest success. The runner-up Gem Daly gave the form a boost by winning the Grade One Barry & Sandra Kelly Memorial Novice Hurdle over the same two and a half miles on Sunday in his absence.

Danagher, who also has useful handicap chaser Ballycullen Boy in her care in her four-horse string in County Limerick, spent 21 years working with Michael Hourigan.