Foley full of hope

No Full, a creditable third in the Paddy Power Chase at Leopardstown last week, bids for compensation over the smaller obstacles at Naas on Sunday.

Tom Foley has decided to give the seven-year-old his third run in a month in the Woodlands Park 100 Slaney Novice Hurdle as he has come out of his last race in fine shape.

“He’s in good order and we’re very happy with him,” said the Bagenalstown-based handler.

“He was probably a little unfortunate at Leopardstown in that he may have needed the run.

“We could have done with him being back sooner and maybe he wasn’t back in work long enough as he hadn’t run over fence since last March, so on the day it was a pretty good run.

“He’s back over hurdles and back down to two and a half miles. There’s no chases coming up for him so we thought we’d go for this two-and-a-half-mile novice hurdle.

“It will do him no harm and he jumps well. Naas is a pretty stiff track, it takes a bit of getting so we thought we’d let him have a run round.”

Foley explained how David Casey came in for the ride.

“We couldn’t claim a riding allowance in this race and Mick Fitzgerald was hoping to ride him, but he couldn’t come over from England,” he added.

“Anyway we’ve got David Casey, so the horse won’t be lacking anything from the saddle.”

No Full faces eight rivals in this Grade Two heat, including Eamonn Sheehy’s unbeaten Trafford Lad, Philip Fenton’s Woodbine Willie and Mr Muji from Noel Meade’s stable.