A 40/1 surprise was lying in wait in the €75,000 final of the Connolly’s Red Mills Irish EBF Auction Hurdle Series Final as the Peter Fahey-trained Ambitious Fellow and Sam Ewing shocked a host of better-fancied rivals.

A €30,000 store purchase, this six-year-old won a Fairyhouse bumper in October but had been off the track since finishing fourth in a Clonmel maiden hurdle the following month. That initial effort over timber apparently left him plenty to do but he relished every inch of this near two-and-a-half-mile trip to nail Rebel Ivy on the line after the latter looked to have stolen a march on the field rounding the last bend.