It took Sir Bob 17 attempts to win over fences but having done so at Punchestown last time, the Robert Tyner-trained gelding followed up in the Ryans Cleaning Event Specialists Veterans Handicap Chase at Limerick.

A decent handicap hurdler in his early days, the J.P. McManus-owned ten-year-old had been slow to take to fences but seems to have got the hang of things at this late stage of his career.

Sent off a well fancied 6/5f, he held a narrow lead turning into the straight but faced a strong challenge from R'evelyn Pleasure The eventual winner was only just getting the better of that particular argument when R'evelyn Pleasure fell at the last.

Robert Tyner, “We had three winners on this day last year and he was third. He did it well and handles that ground.

“It’s brilliant to get another race with him. He was a long time over fences without winning and he’s after getting two now so we are in real bonus territory with him now. He stays well.

“When Punchestown was called off for a week I was a little bit worried as there was 18 days between them and it ended up being ten. I was a bit concerned about that but he seemed very fresh and well in himself.

“We’ll keep going and find something for him.”

Additional reporting by Alan Magee