Philip Fenton has a lovely young horse on his hands in Butch Cassidy who justified 9/4 favouritism in the John Madden & Sons INH Flat Race.
Great rivals Derek O'Connor and Patrick Mullins were to the fore in the closing stages of the Lodge At Ashford Castle (QR) Handicap Hurdle.
The Gordon Elliott-trained Favori De Champdou was made to work hard to land the odds in the Hugh McMahon Memorial Novice Chase at Limerick this evening.
Having landed the opener down in Limerick trainer Declan Queally struck again in the first race at Ballinrobe with another all-the-way winner, the well-backed Diamond Nora.
Cosmo Renfro's stamina kicked in late on as he bagged another win at Limerick this evening.
Not a single faller in the Grand National has to be seen as a major triumph for those involved in tweaking with the great race to make it palatable for a modern audience.
It is now little more than a distant relation to the race I was weaned on, but that is not necessarily a bad thing. The Grand National has always been the primary shop window for the sport and nowadays that requires a sanitised version where dead horses are simply unacceptable.
My Racing StorySponsored By Tote
I'm from Monasterevin, Co Kildare and I'm riding since I could walk really. My grandad used to have a few of his own horses. None of my family would really be into racing, but I got into riding ponies. Then, when I was about 11 or 12, I started pony racing which is a great place to start. It gives you loads of experience of race riding and gets your brain set up for the track. My cousin Aidan Melia supplied me with more than 20 winners pony racing. He was very good to me and got me going. I was all over the country pony racing up to Donegal and down to Kerry and sometimes over to Scotland as well. When I was about 11, I was in with trainer Seamus Fahey and he was very good to me. He got me going riding racehorses and gave me loads of experience riding work. I was always small when I was young and everyone used to tell me I should be a jockey. Thank God I stayed that way and my weight is good. I wouldn't wake up more than eight stone every morning. Hopefully, things stay like that.
Paddy Twomey recounts his remarkable training journey
Top trainer Paddy Twomey tells us about how he got started in the training ranks and became one of Ireland's leading horse racing trainers