IT looked tight at the top of the Ladbrokes Nap Table going into the last day meeting of the year and the brave and bold were going to have to go for broke to take the first prize away from the leaders.

With the sole winning nap on the final day’s action at Punchestown, ATR’s Gary O’Brien blew his opposition out of the water to take the €2,000 first prize. And how...with a 25/1 winner Returntovendor on the final day in the big handicap at Punchestown.

It brought him from a loss on the year to over €10 ahead of his nearest pursurer, Vincent Finegan.

We tried to put an equine spin on the result and the best we could come up with was a Sole Power-style, late turbo drive, over the top of all his rivals.

Vincent Fingegan, who had built up a big lead midsummer, held on to second place and €1,000 in prize money, while Donal Murphy took third with less than €2 between him and fifth place Gary Carson.

A few tried to pull it out of the fire with long priced selections and Miles To Memphis (third, 14/1) came close for Ryan McElligott, Justin O’Hanlon and Cathal Gahan.

The best precentage winners to runners through the season was Peter O’Hehir’s 23 winning selections with Billy Nash in second place with 20.

The year begins again at Cork today.

There might be an investigation into the final placings at the lower end of the table in the belief that Johnny Ward put up a rather lethargic performance and might well have been tampered with!

Congratulations to all prize winners.