Although denied victory in the Grand Prix, Eddie Macken retained the Corry challenge trophy yesterday when his second placing in a class claimed by Stephen Smith earned him sufficient points to end as the leading grade A rider of the fixture.
Macken, greeted with cheers from the grandstand even at the early hour of 8.15 a.m., appeared to have put his second win of the week in place when the Dutch-bred Ingmar survived a careless moment at the first fence and went on to shave two seconds off the target time in a five-horse jump-off.
However Smith, last to go, stole a little of the limelight from Macken with a superb run to the final two fences which saw Desert Prince, a stallion son of Touchdown, cross the finish line a further two seconds to the good.
The only other zero score in the jump-off came from Denis Coakley and Toshiba Dreampoint, who filled third place in the line-up. Capt Gerry Flynn and Rincoola Abu connected with the second part of the double in yesterday's jump-off to drop to fourth.