Timely second serving in Plate illustrates Walsh's credentials for McManus job

When Bob Lingo sluiced up in the 2012 Galway Plate under Mark Walsh in the JP McManus colours, it constituted the biggest win of his career – by some way.

He wore a yellow cap on the Tom Mullins runner that day, and his second Plate triumph in the white cap that distinguishes McManus's first choice was a timely and apt illustration of his credentials as the influential owner's de facto number one rider in Ireland.

Walsh had been sharing the cream of the rides with Barry Geraghty over the past two years, an evolution that resulted in his famous Champion Hurdle success aboard Espoir D'Allen last year.