Thermistocles made it third time lucky over fences at Thurles today as the Joseph O'Brien trained gelding landed the Horse & Jockey Beginners Chase under jockey J.J. Slevin.

The son of Oscar's previous win was at Clonmel in November 2018 and today showed the benefit of two previous chase outings, his latest being last Friday at Limerick, when beating Myth Buster by a length and a half.

Jockey Slevin is a cousin of both trainer Joseph O'Brien and his sister Sarah O'Brien who owns Thermistocles and following the race the trainer's assistant Brendan Powell said “JJ said that the horse learned and he also learned a lot from him the last day.

“He said rather than commit him like he did the last time he just waited today.

“For a novice he jumped very well and it was just nice to see him get his head back in front again.”

Quotes from Gary Carson