Racing: Geos gives Kavanagh his biggest success yet

Geos side-stepped a battle with Best Mate and made the most of a much easier task in the £40,000 Castleford Chase at Wetherby, where he provided Nick Henderson with some compensation for the defeats of Marlborough and Bacchanal and gave John Kavanagh his biggest success in the saddle.

Geos was sent into the lead going to the final fence and he kept up the gallop to beat Armaturk by eight lengths, with Davoski a distance away in third in the two-mile test.

At Ayr, Tony Dobbin was in sparkling form with a near 20-1 four-timer. The Bajan Bandit set the ball rolling for the jockey when running out the impressive winner of the opening novices' chase. Jupiter De Bussy followed 35 minutes later in the novices' handicap hurdle before Yankee Jamie took the Handicap Chase.

Dobbin rounded off the afternoon with victory on Glenmoss Tara in the novices' hurdle. His first three winners were all trained by Len Lungo, while Glenmoss Tara is in the care of Nicky Richards.

Le Coudray and Barry Geraghty justified favouritism in the Grade One Denny Gold Medal Novice Chase at Leopardstown.

The French-bred survived a mistake at the second last and then a stern challenge from Bust Out to delight his trainer Christy Roche and owner J P McManus. "I was always happy he was going to win, though we were well aware that Bust Out would not be beaten easily," Roche said.