THE 2023-24 season commenced on Sunday with the Westmeath Foxhounds meeting at Castletown-Geoghegan and the Pat Doyle-trained Brave Fortune lit up the fixture by destroying the opposition in the four-year-old maiden - the race that attracted the biggest field of the day in 12 runners.

Brave Fortune (3/1 - 4/1) brought an unusual profile to the table considering that he finished a more than creditable seventh on his only previous start in the Goffs Defender bumper at the Punchestown Festival and he tracked the frontrunning Boolamore Classic for most of the journey, always taking the eye on the outer with Pa King.