FINDING value National Hunt horses can be a major challenge in the current era of superspending top outfits, so it must go down as a real feather in the cap of trainer Ross O’Sullivan to saddle the 1-2 in the Connolly’s Red Mills Irish EBF Auction Hurdle Series Final.

This €75,000 pot is restricted to horses purchased at public auction as stores for €45,000 or less, and the decisive 2026 winner, Raise You Up, went through the ring for €5,000 as an unraced three-year-old. After flashing promise in his sole point-to-point for the Codds, he joined Lorus Projects Limited privately, and this was his third win in six starts for the Co Kildare yard.