Smoking Big Cigars looks poised to stub out rivals

Smoking Big Cigars earns the nap selection to land the Meath Handicap Hurdle on this afternoon’s card at Navan. The Sandra Hughes-trained gelding made his seasonal debut at Fairyhouse in November, and was sent off favourite to land a competitive handicap hurdle.

The lightly raced gelding ran well for a long way but faded out of contention in the straight and eventually came home seventh, beaten more than 18 lengths behind De Benno.

As it was his first run for some time and the stable was out of form at the time, he’s entitled to show plenty of improvement.