Salute Him gave his supporters heart palpitations before justifying odds of 4/5 in the concluding Seamus Murphy Balbriggan Retail Park (Q.R.) Race.

Derek O'Connor rode the son of Mull Of Kintyre with extreme confidence, only asking him to close down End Of The Affair from the furlong pole and he got there, only just, prevailing by a head.

Winning trainer Tony Martin said: "The poor old horse deserved that. He ran well at Ascot when I told the jockey to hold on to him a bit too much and he was unlucky in Dubai so this was well deserved. He has plenty of options now; he could go back over hurdles.

"Yer man (Derek O'Connor) is some cool customer, he is a serious man."