Young jockey Cian Murphy guides Prairie Town to Point-to-Point victory at Higham for trainer Michelle Bentham and owner Paul Birrane

To those on the outside, Prairie Town’s Novice Riders’ race victory at the Essex & Suffolk Point-to-Point meeting in Higham on Good Friday is unlikely to have captured the imagination.

But the result – which came at the expense of favourite Muckamore – does not begin to tell even half of the story.

In the saddle was Cian Murphy, a 16-year-old who is entrenched deeply within the horse racing industry given that his mother Marie is Champion trainer Charlie Appleby’s assistant and his father Shaun is part of handler Sean Woods’ team. Yet this was only the St Benedict's Catholic School pupil's third ever ride and it delivered a maiden victory.

The 12-year-old horse, meanwhile, is trained by Michelle Bentham out of her back garden on the outskirts of Soham.

And her partner Paul Birrane, who works as feed man in Appleby’s yard, spent the winter riding out the horse that he owns, despite the fact that in recent years he has undergone heart surgery and had a hip replacement.

It is a tale to warm the heart and one that has understandably left Bentham ‘delighted’.

“We train out of the back garden and ride up to Newmarket six days a week,” said Bentham.

“Paul has ridden out in all sorts of horrible weather this winter and he has not long had a hip replacement and heart surgery.

“And Cian was not able to ride him until he was 16, which was in January, so we’re absolutely delighted.

“It just makes all of the hard work and expense in recent months worth it. Those five minutes of racing for that bit of glory, it’s what it’s all about and you forget the hardship.

“We make sure the horses get the best of everything so when you get a result like that it’s all worthwhile.”

The East Anglian Point-to-Point season will resume on Saturday afternoon at High Easter in the Essex With Farmers And Union meeting – the penultimate fixture of the campaign.