There was an upset to the concluding p2p.ie geldings’ point-to-point bumper at Tipperary on Thursday evening as the 16/1 shot Douglas Talking got up in the dying strides under Paul Bannon to deny the favourite My Immortal in a thrilling finish.
A first winner since November 2018 for the Dunsany-based trainer Andrew Lynch – incidentally that success had come courtesy of the Keith Donoghue-ridden Under Surveillance - and it was Donoghue’s elder brother Ian that had sent out Douglas Talking to make his debut in a point-to-point at Fairyhouse recently.
A final-fence faller when showing plenty of promise on that occasion, the five-year-old who carried the colours of Ian Donoghue’s fiancée Alana McGuinness, would have been an unlucky loser here had he been denied having enjoyed a luckless passage up the home straight in the steadily run contest.
However, a gap opened up for just in time which allowed him to come through and collar the favourite and former Ballycrystal winner My Immortal, who had been unable to put the race to be in the home straight.
It proved to be a very bunched finish with not only a nose separating the front pair after the judge’s deliberation, but with just a half-length back to Thelasthighking back in third and a neck then separating him from Every Minute and Chicago Time in fourth and fifth places respectively, the first five home were covered by less than a length at the line.
For winning seven-pound claimer Paul Bannon it was his second success on the track in the space of the last month, having also guided Peter Flood's Save Us Avis to victory at Cork on Easter Monday.
