AS the seven runners circled at the post for the Flavin Footwear winner of two race at Boulta on Sunday afternoon, few outside of the point-to-point world had heard of Ask Heather and Michael Sweeney. However his remarkable recovery at the final fence, which allowed the pair to claim what had seemed a most unlikely success, propelled the promising young rider into the spotlight, not just within the wider racing public, but on a far wider scale.

Described as ‘the ride of the year’ by Pat Kenny on his Newstalk radio show on Monday morning, as he encouraged his listeners to go online and seek out a replay of the race, Off The Ball’s Eoin Sheehan bypassed golfer Shane Lowry’s success in Abu Dhabi in favour of Sweeney when awarding the weekend’s Irish sporting performance of the weekend.

VIRAL SENSATION

Footage of the incident became an instant viral sensation across the globe, from television replays on the BBC and Sky News, to news outlets such as the Daily Mail, The Guardian and Sports Illustrated writing about the miraculous recovery.

“It has been unbelievable, I never thought that it would go that big,” said the 21-year-old.

“I was fairly confident that we would win going out, I thought that she would have a big chance, but coming down to the last she just came out of my hands.

“At the time it all happened very quickly. My first reaction, like anyone, was to not fall off and just grab a hold of something.

“Once I got back in the saddle, I thought that I had a very slim chance to catch Derek O’Connor but luckily enough we did.

“Liam Healy was there and he came over and showed them to me. Even then straight after it, it was unbelievable looking back at it.”

PUBLICITY

Days later and with replays of the race having been viewed well over one million times, the publicity he has garnered from the recovery has been welcomed.

“It was about two hours after it that my phone started hopping and then it just went from there. I couldn’t believe it when I saw how big it was going afterwards.

“The publicity has been great. As a young lad it is very hard to get going, so it’s been a brilliant help!”

Heart of Racing page 7