Inca Brave But Not Impressive

Brave Inca returned to the winners enclosure on Wednesday when taking the Ballymore Properties Hatton's Grace Hurdle at Fairyhouse.

The eight year old, who has not won since winning the Smurfit Kappa Champion Hurdle at Cheltenham, had to dig deep in the testing conditions and under a powerful ride from Tony McCoy managed to plug on to win by 3/4 of a length from Rosaker.

Bookmakers William Hill were obviously unimpressed with the run and promptly pushed Brave Inca out to 7-1 from 6-1 for the Smurfit Kappa Champion Hurdle at Cheltenham.

Spokesman Ben Clarke explained: "Although Brave Inca improved on his third place in the race last year he only beat Brogella, who is rated 30 pounds his inferior, by a couple of lengths suggesting that he will certainly need to improve to be a player at Cheltenham." He continued: "The conditions were testing so it's hard to take too much out of the race but the win appeared to be more of a testament to the ability of Tony McCoy than the prospective chances of Brave Inca and as a result we have eased him in our betting."