He was unshipped when Fe Game fell two out in a handicap hurdle three weeks, suffering concussion.  Edward O’Grady’s stable jockey did not regain consciousness until the day after and there were serious concerns for his safety.  He has now revealed that he had reservations about the quick ground and made these feelings known to track officials.

“If a trainer declares a horse, and he seems ‘firm watering,’ he does assume that it will be someway safe.

“I don’t like comparing with England the whole time, but if the ground is firm, they won’t race on it – they do call off the meetings for firm ground over there.  What they call firm is only what we’d call good to firm.  When a lot of tracks in Ireland have very good watering facilities, I don’t see why the ground should be so fast.”

He added:  “I remember point to pointing in Clonakilty, and they could have yielding ground just by watering.”

McNamara stressed that his grip was not solely with Navan.  “It’s an across the board thing,” he insisted.  “I suppose it’s because there are so many horses across the country, racecourses don’t have to make much an effort.  If they were struggling for numbers, it may be a different story.”

McNamara is one of the country’s leading jockeys, but this injury will keep him out of the saddle for another few weeks – he is expected back into the fold well in advance of the Galway Festival at Ballybrit next August.

Jockey Chris Hayes earned trainer Enda Kelly his first two-year-old winner (after nine seconds with his juveniles) when Chibcha (14/1), owned by Lady O’Reilly, recovered from a tardy start to land the Irish Stallion Farms Median Auction Maiden.

The daughter of High Chaparral only got up close home to deny Roshina (7/1) by a head.  “She’s a lovely filly and hated the surface when she ran at Dundalk,” explained Kelly.