Fozzy Stack’s Chazzesmee justified his status as the favourite to land the Nua Healthcare Irish Lincolnshire at the Curragh.
The six-year-old was second over course and distance when last seen in July and also has heavy ground form from a previous Naas success.
He is lightly raced with only nine runs to his name due to a previous injury and came into the race off the back of a 260-day break, though that proved no hindrance to him as he made his seasonal debut.
Under Joey Sheridan he travelled in the latter half of the field and began to make progress in the final two furlongs, joining the front runners in the last half furlong and eventually prevailing by a length on the line.
The run could now lead him to the Lincoln at Doncaster on Saturday should he come out of it well, and he has been halved from 20-1 to 10-1 for the contest with Paddy Power.
Chazzesmee is the big-race winner of the highlight on the opening day of our season, proving best in the Nua Healthcare Irish Lincolnshire for @joeysheridan8 and @Stack_Racing 👏 pic.twitter.com/z2KR0uq0WB
— The Curragh Racecourse (@curraghrace) March 18, 2024
Stack said: “He did it well off a lay-off. We’ll see how he is during the week and he’s in the English Lincoln on Saturday. A 5lb penalty would get him into it.
“He’s never been short of ability, and we ironed out a few kinks in him.
“We brought him over to Saratoga last year and he got a stone bruise and couldn’t run on the day.
“Then when he was coming back he got stuck in some airport in Holland or Belgium for four days as a vet was giving out about some paperwork.
“We just ran out of time to run him. He broke his pelvis in Dundalk as a three-year-old so that’s why he was off for a year.”
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