JOHN BOWE watched the Champion Bumper at Cheltenham in a betting shop in Skerries, unable to ignore the sense of inevitability that had flooded over him all week. Even when Fayonagh fluffed her lines at the start and gave ground to every single horse in the race, he knew deep down what was going to unfold.

It soon became evident that not even the ground would present a problem. That went against her pedigree and what we saw when she emerged a 20-length winner of a listed contest at Fairyhouse on soft-to-heavy.