'I can’t envisage myself doing anything else' - Christmas double provides extra pleasure for Sean O'Brien

Durty Nelly’s in Bunratty is the sort of place where the walls pulse with old stories. Legend has it that the eponymous first landlady, a figure of dubious repute, created the elixir of life in her home-made poteen. Some 400 years later it remains one of Ireland’s most picturesque and famous watering holes.

Sean O’Brien was many miles away from the pub on one May evening in 1997 but it was an occasion which has played no small part in sustaining his training career and has allowed him to reap the benefits of his evergreen stable star R’evelyn Pleasure.

The 12-year-old completed back-to-back victories over the new year, adding a handicap at Cork to his veterans’ chase at Limerick and bringing back memories of riding the gelding’s granddam, Be My Pleasure.