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.