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.