Sam James was on the mark on the double at Dundalk tonight, his success on Blue Cross Boy in the second split of the Dundalk Stadium Handicap adding to his earlier gains on Iron Major The brace rewarded those lucky enough to have invested at odds of 142/1 and for James it was a second double, having achieved the same feat at Wexford in the past.

Blue Cross Boy hadn't won since landing his maiden at Redcar on outing number two way back in August 2007. Thirty two outings in the interim had been fruitless but persistence paid off for the seven-year-old grey here, leading from the quarter mile pole before going on to beat Naked Cowboy (stayed on well) by a length and a quarter.

Ado McGuinness trains Blue Cross Boy for Sean Gallagher and he said: "That's been a long time coming. He's been consistent and I'm happy as Sean is a great supporter of the yard.

"He was off for quite a while (about 17 months) with a bad injury and he deserved to get his day.

"He'll go hurdling during the summer."