Nick Dundee may have run his last race although staging a winning comeback at Cork yesterday afternoon in the Buttevant To Doneraile Chase.
Although winning trainer Edward O'Grady initially expressed relief with the outcome, he later revealed that the injury-plagued nine-year-old had finished unsound.
"Nick Dundee is not sound in front and, subject to talking to his owners, retirement is a considered option now with him." It was all an anti-climax for the O'Grady camp and regular partner Norman Williamson, who had made all the running on the odds-on favourite.
A drifter in the market from 1 to 4 to 2 to 5 despite the withdrawal of Ferbet Junior, Nick Dundee overcame a couple of untidy jumps to move away from the well-backed Clash of the Gales and the outsider Bregogue turning into the home straight.
Both the winner and Clash of the Gales, who was later found to have burst a blood vessel, made mistakes at the third last, but Williamson had the favourite in a clear lead before the final fence and they could afford to coast home by three-and-a-half lengths as Bregogue took the runner-up spot by half-a-length from Clash of the Gales.