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ALAN Fleming stuck festival gold here for the first time as Tully East and a masterful Denis O’Regan provided owned Barry Connell with his third festival triumph.

Although he had come up short in two outings at graded level, Tully East (8/1) was expected to deliver a bold showing to make up for a somewhat unlucky fourth in last year’s Martin Pipe. By his own admission, Fleming has endured a trying season at times but when it mattered most he produced one of his most talented charges in rare form.

Denis O’Regan, partnering his first winner at the meeting for five years, rode a typically well judged waiting race and deftly managed to avoid a series of fallers over the course of the race. From some way out Tully East could be picked out travelling well and nothing was going better as he came between horses to strike the front at the last fence. From there the Shantou gelding kept on well to see off Gold Present by a length and a quarter.

“I’m so thrilled. I can’t begin to tell you what this means,” reflected an elated Fleming, who had previously come within touching distance of a Cheltenham winner when he was based in Britain. “We had an awesome jockey and an awesome horse and it’s fantastic for Barry. Denis gave the horse a wonderfully astute ride and this horse has lots of ability. With a clear run he could be very good.

“We’ve had a very up and down, stop start season but this makes up for it. Whether we run this horse again this season I’ll have to talk to Barry but I’d love to see him in a graded race,” added Fleming.

Tully East is only the second Irish-trained horse to win this race since its inception in 2005.