IT wasn’t easy for the smaller yards to compete at Leopardstown’s Christmas Festival, so it was good to see the Tom Hogan-trained Winsome Bucks see off a fleet of fancied horses from the big stables in the bumper on day two of the meeting.

The 50/1 winner was also bred by Tom, and the pedigree has been in the family for almost 100 years. The trainer reported: “In 1929 my father Jimmy was 18 years of age when he sold a cob to buy his first thoroughbred mare which he saw advertised in The Irish Field. The mare was named Waterdale and the vendor was Mrs O’Donoghue from Blarney, Co Cork.”