Rising the star for Skelton on good day for Irish point-to-pointers

Although this was a modest card with just 37 runners contesting the six races, it was a fine advertisement for Irish point-to-pointing with four winners who began life in that sphere winning by an aggregate of 68 lengths on what was a good day for spread buyers.

The most interesting of the trio was Red Rising, who made his British debut in the 3m11/2f novice hurdle and scored by 15 lengths under Harry Skelton.

He is owned by Paul and Clare Rooney and is trained for them by Dan Skelton, whose assistant Tom Messenger said: "He won his point-to-point in April and came to us just before Christmas. The form of his point win worked out well as the second horse was Testify who has done well over hurdles his season.