THERE were great scenes in the parade ring at Punchestown on Tuesday when Zabana landed a well-deserved Grade 1 success in the Growise Champion Novice Chase. Carrying the colours of Chris Jones and trained by Andy Lynch, the seven-year-old son of Halling was the second Grade 1 winner on the day that had been selected and purchased as a young horse by Kevin Ross Bloodstock.

Kevin and his wife Anna Moore are a formidable team of experts when it comes to bloodstock and they both possess blue-blood pedigrees themselves. To have sourced two Grade 1 winners on the same day at a major festival meeting must surely rank as one of their best days at the races. They then went one better on Wednesday when Blow By Blow captured the Grade 1 Attheraces.com Champion INH Flat Race (see separate story).