UP north, staying with friends on Saturday night, Assagart’s John Roche took his time travelling home on Sunday not realising that Its On The Line, winner of the Irish Daily Star Champion Hunters Chase at Punchestown in April, was making his seasonal debut at the Co Kilkenny Foxhounds’ meeting in the grounds of Damma House.

And it was a winning one too, as the Maxine O’Sullivan-ridden Presenting gelding, who led two out, held on to score by half-a-length in the eight-runner open from the always-prominent Derek O’Connor-partnered Jeremy Pass. The winner, who was bred by John and his wife Catherine, is trained by the very shrewd Emmet Mullins, who will target the six-year-old at the St James’s Place Open Hunters’ Chase at Cheltenham, a race in which he finished second last season under O’Connor.

“I didn’t realise the horse was running, otherwise I would have been there,” said John. “But, I’ll tell you now, if he runs at Cheltenham next March, I’ll definitely be there, shouting him home!”

While Its On The Line is out of the deceased Accordion mare Ten Dollar Bill (an unraced half-sister to Monbeg Dude), Roche missed seeing Mullins’ charge score at Punchestown in the hands of O’Connor, as he was at home waiting on the winner’s unraced half-sister, Give Me A Dollar (by Fame And Glory), to deliver her first foal.

That Ice Breeze colt is among a consignment of five foals John is sending, through his Bell Lodge Stables, to the December National Hunt Sale at Goffs (December 11th to 14th). By then, Its On The Line may have added to his CV, which currently shows three wins and two second-placings from eight outings on the track, and three wins, two seconds and a third-place from a similar number of runs in point-to-points.