Cheltenham hero Paul Townend completed a double on his first day back racing in Ireland at Limerick today when steering the Michael Hourigan trained Donegal Tuesday to a last gasp win in the Follow Limerick Racecourse On Twitter Handicap Hurdle.

Donegal Tuesday and Townend were hard at work on the run-in and eventually finished well to reel in Stolberg near the line, for a half length win.

The daughter of Presenting carries the colours of owner Steve Fahy whose Hole In The Wall Bar in Galway hosts the infamous rag-week event called ‘Donegal Tuesday’ . The unofficial event sees students don Donegal football jerseys and head to the Hole in the Wall, and has been followed in recent times by ‘Mayo Monday’.

Following the race, Hourigan said “I’m delighted for Stevie (Fahy) as he made some effort to come today - I was stopping him coming, as his legs are weak, but it’s great!

“I’m after running her twice in a week and she might also go on better ground, as she’s by Presenting. It’s my plan to run in the west of Ireland with her for Stevie and hopefully she can go to Galway for the festival.”

He added “I could have claimed 5lbs (jockey) but if I did, she’d have been beaten! It was a big call for me make but opted not to claim and use Paul (Townend) and it worked.”

Hourigan later revealed it was 38 years this weekend since his first training win with Ramraja, under jockey Jack Cullen, as the Co Limerick based handler nears 1,000 winners.

By Tom Weekes