Charles Byrnes won with consecutive Limerick Christmas festival runners today, as his Whateys Quest (11/4f) landed a gamble to land the Limerick Racecourse Novice Handicap Chase, under the trainer’s son Philip Byrnes.

Byrnes senior won yesterday’s bumper with I Started A Joke and continued the adventure with Whateys Quest, which overcame this season’s form-figures of ‘000’ when scoring readily by three lengths from Rusheen .

Backed from 10/1 this morning, Whateys Quest was recording his second career success and Byrnes senior stated “(extra) distance made the difference as he was on his head the whole way at Naas the last day and couldn’t lie up. I had this race in mind for a while and it worked out.

“The ground is more testing and more dead today, and is similar to the ground he won on in Clonmel (in April). Everything was in his favour today and it is job done now. This is his level and he’ll mix it between hurdles and fences.”

Regarding son Philip, who returned from injury riding a winner on St Stephen's Day, he added “it was disappointing Philip missed our big winner in Haydock (with Shoot First, early December) but it is what it is, and he is back now thank God.”