Owner Paul Byrne's Soldier In Milan (4/1 — 5/2f) landed a gamble in Punchestown's concluding Overlander Bumper today, completing a high-profile treble on the day for English Grand National-winning trainer Emmet Mullins.

A debut point-to-point winner at Monksgrange on his sole previous start in March 2024, the six-year-old today scored under John Gleeson, when beating King Rasko Grey by 4.75 lengths.

Mullins, earlier successful with Its On The Line and Sea Music , was emulating his uncle champion trainer Willie Mullins' Friday-treble today and said “Soldier In Milan is an exciting horse, I always thought a lot of him but he's a big unit, so I was terrified of the ground.

“He's an exciting horse for next season with a cut in the ground and should have a big future ahead of him. He was a 16-length point-to-point winner and was very impressive on the day. It's great to get that out of the way for this season but I think there could be big things ahead of him next year.

He added “we had a treble in Cork in the past - including winning a graded chase with Cape Gentleman, but this is a great place to be advertising yourself.”

Today's eight-race card saw non-Mullins trained winners from Ian McCarthy and Gordon Elliott.

Quotes from Gary Carson