IT’s supposed to be one of the most competitive handicap chases on the Irish jumping racing calendar, but nobody told Flooring Porter ahead of last Wednesday’s Kerry National at Listowel.

The traditional highlight of the marathon festival has often been a fiendishly difficult puzzle to solve over the years and the latest renewal of the big race promised to be no different . . . only for one horse to adopt a successful ‘catch me if you can’ approach.

Dual Stayers’ Hurdle champion Flooring Porter had been backed into 6/1 second favourite on only his fifth start over the larger obstacles and this popular front-runner soon had the chasing pack sending out distress signals.

The nine-year-old didn’t hang about under jockey Keith Donoghue and soon opened a yawning gap on the field, headed by sole English challenger The Real Whacker which was still lying a distant second when coming to grief at the tenth fence.

It wouldn’t have affected the outcome in any event as Flooring Porter continue to gallop his rivals into submission and though there was a scare at the third last, the Sean Murphy bred charge was never in any danger of being caught.

Donoghue could even afford to ease down Flooring Porter close to the line, leaving the Willie Mullins trained Horantzau d’Airy to bridge the gap to a flattering four and half lengths margin by the winning post.

It represented a ninth career success for Flooring Porter and takes his career winnings to over £775,000, leaving his Ballinasloe-based owners of Ned Hogarty, Tommy and Alan Sweeney, and Kerrill Creaven still on cloud nine a week after their horse’s latest big-race triumph.

But the Flooring Porter Syndicate have cooled their jets a little in relation to a tilt at the Aintree Grand National next April after the handicapper’s reaction to the Kerry National procession.

As a rule, assessors take a dim view of supposedly competitive handicap being turned into a rout and Flooring Porter’s new chasing mark of 163 – a penal rise of one stone – would place him near top of the weights for the Liverpool marathon.

According to syndicate member Kerril Creaven, plans for the horse remain up in the air. “We haven’t been really talking to Gavin [Cromwell] since about where we might go, but we know the horse goes well fresh.”

A return to Cheltenham for a long-distance hurdle at the track’s November meeting is one possibility, while Flooring Porter might also be aimed at the track’s big Cleeve Hurdle next January,

Given his terrific course form in the Stayers Hurdle in the Cotswolds – two wins, a second and fourth placings – it’s no surprise that Cheltenham would figure large in connections’ thinking about the best options for Flooring Porter

A fifth crack at the Stayers’ Hurdle next March couldn’t be ruled out either, but Creaven was more than content just to absorb the horse’s latest big-race success which was worth €120,000.

“It’s brilliant, absolutely fantastic. The way he done it was impressive fall. Bar a fall you could call him the winner from a long way out. He’s the horse of a lifetime.”

Meanwhile, Galway trainer Darren Collins saddled his second winner in a matter of weeks when the always prominent Sayitfirst landed the Jimmy Murray Agri Services Handicap Hurdle at Roscommon on Monday.

The 18/1 chance stepped up considerably on an unplaced run at the Listowel festival week, with Monivea-based Collins putting the eight-year-old’s improved effort down to the better ground. It was a second career win for Sayitfirst, with stablemate Ask Cillian – successful in Killarney last month – coming home in seventh.

Pictured: The Flooring Porter Syndicate celebrate with supporters after the Gavin Comwell trained nine-year-old proved a class part in the Kerry National at the Listowel Festival.