News round-up: Watson Lake bounced back from a disappointing show at the Cheltenham Festival to claim Nickname's scalp in the Grade Three An Uaimh Chase at Navan on Saturday.
The Noel Meade-trained eight-year-old was always towards the back in the Queen Mother Champion Chase and trailed home a disappointing sixth behind Newmill.
However, he returned to his best in the two-and-a-half-mile contest and after jumping to the front at the final fence, went on to beat Nickname by an easy eight lengths.
Nickname, sent off the even-money favourite, bowled along in front and was still in the lead turning for home after a clean round of jumping.
But Paul Carberry was not far behind on the 5 to 2 winner and after stalking the long-time leader, he kicked on to notch a bloodless victory.
"I have no idea what went wrong at Cheltenham - he ran no sort of race and he'd never run like that before," said Meade.
"He will go for a Grade One chase at the Punchestown Festival now but he will stay further than this in the future."
Meanwhile, Golden Cross is reported to be making a good recovery from the injury he sustained to his near-fore leg at the Cheltenham Festival.
Michael Halford's seven-year-old was just a head behind My Way De Solzen in the Ladbrokes World Hurdle but he was found to have cut his leg after the race. "He's fine but we didn't get him home until last Thursday as he struck into himself," Halford said yesterday.
"All is well with him and after a month or six weeks of rest, all will be well with him and we're looking forward to getting him back at the backend of this year.
"Fingers crossed we will get him back (for the World Hurdle) and go one better."
Brighton's opening fixture of the 2006 season was abandoned owing to a sea fret which had lingered over the track since early morning. Clerk of the course Geoff Stickels was aware of the problem at 11.00am and called his first inspection at 1.30pm. Three further inspections took place before common sense prevailed and the stewards decided to abandon at approximately 3.05pm.
Yesterday's meeting at Cork was also abandoned due to a waterlogged track.
The Jim Bolger-trained Alexander Goldrun ran respectably to finish fifth but ultimately had little answer to the Japanese-trained winner Heart's Cry in the $5 million Dubai Sheema Classic at Nad Al Sheba on Saturday.
