Irish Gold Cup 2019: Bellshill edges out Road To Respect in thrilling finish despite SIX non-runners in the race

BELLSHILL battled on gamely to defeat Road To Respect after a ding-dong battle in the Unibet Irish Gold Cup.

The race was hit with non-runners after SIX were taken out and only four went to post - but that didn't stop there being a thrilling finish.

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Bellshill and Road To Respect were always in the firing line with their only other rivals - The Storyteller and Outlander - happy to sit in behind the two leaders.

Push came to shove as they neared the home turn and the front two in the betting skipped clear of their rivals.

Both horses and jockeys gave their all up the straight but it was Willie Mullins' Bellshill under jockey Ruby Walsh who stuck his neck out on the line at the right time.

Road To Respect lost nothing in defeat as he was beaten by just a short head in the photo-finish.

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Mullins said: "He jumped brilliant and Ruby was great on him. We're very keen to take him to Cheltenham, he needed the run badly at Christmas.

"Ruby was fantastic. We didn't want a slow pace and he didn't think there was much pace in the race so he elected to make it.

"Then when Sean went by him, Ruby was happy to sit there.

"What I really liked about the horse was that every time Ruby wanted a jump, he took two lengths out of the one in front.

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"He knew he had that in hand and he was very confident and cool over the last three fences, I thought.

"He used the other horse as a lead. I thought he might pull out more after the last, but he pulled out enough.

"A lot of horses didn't turn up, but still the quality horses were here and they served up a fantastic race.

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"We might have a few nice horses to go to Cheltenham with this year.

"He's always promised to be this good. Now he's won his Irish Gold Cup and hopefully we'll follow on, maybe, next month.

"He was very good at Christmas, but he needed it. Road To Respect was unlucky at Christmas, but we needed it."