THE film, The Revenant, – a harrowing but compelling tale of how an individual returns from apparently certain death – is playing to packed audiences currently, with Leonardo di Caprio widely tipped to get an overdue Oscar for his part as the title character.

Racing had its own `revenant’ moment at the weekend, when Ruby Walsh and Killultagh Vic came back from the dead, figuratively speaking, to win the Grade 2 ‘Money Back On Fallers’ at Coral.ie Novice Chase at Leopardstown.

The pair looked to have the race in safe-keeping approaching the last, but Killultagh Vic over-jumped, all but fell, and went from first to third.

Thereafter, a stirrup-less Walsh rode like a man possessed in galvanising his willing mount to get back up, to general disbelief.

It must have been another harrowing ordeal for those who laid him at 999/1 in running!

HOLLYWOOD

In his remarkable career, Walsh has had more than a few moments that might have come from the pen of a Hollywood scriptwriter, but this one arguably tops the lot.

The Revenant: the Ruby Walsh and Killultagh Vic version was an Oscar-winning performance from rider and horse and is likely to be talked of for many years to come.

In terms of what Killultagh Vic achieved, the critics should be writing rave reviews, too.

It looks a good time and gets him a raw timefigure of 140 (Blair Perrone and Lord Scoundrel 139 and 140 respectively), but that makes no allowance for what took place.

Killultagh Vic ran to 154 when winning over hurdles at the last Punchestown Festival, and there is every reason to think he can scale the same heights as a chaser, if not more, assuming he is none the worse (and, here, the master director Willie Mullins can be trusted to do all the right things).

The median rating needed to win the JLT Novices’ Chase at the Cheltenham Festival in its five-year history is 156, so Killultagh Vic may well have little, if anything, to find.

Only Douvan (160) and Vaniteux (157) are rated higher than 154 of those in the betting for the race currently and both of those seem more likely to run in the Arkle instead.