REIGNING champion trainer Willie Mullins knows a thing or two about winning Limerick’s Grade 1 novice chase over the Christmas period. Since 2016 he has won it with Bellshill, Faugheen (in whose honour it is now run), Colreevy, Gaelic Warrior and Impaire Et Passe.

Now, added to that elite group, is the name of Final Demand (Walk In The Park), the Ken Parkhill-bred seven-year-old who first made headlines at the 2022 Tattersalls Ireland Derby Sale when he sold for €230,000 to Matthew Flynn O’Connor’s Ballycrystal Stables. He has an almost perfect race record, the only blot coming when The New Lion and The Yellow Clay finished ahead of him at Cheltenham in the Grade 1 Turners Novices’ Hurdle back in March.