Jim Maxie Collins was bridging a 39 year gap when landing the Kevin Smith Champion Stakes at the National Meeting last week.
Collins had won the event back in 1976 with New South, who beat Social Joe to win the all-aged event.
Collins told the Sporting Press: “It was great to win the Champion Stakes once again.
“It’s a long time since I’ve won anything at Clonmel and in the meantime I’ve had a few near misses including with Charlie’s sire Blueview Sam who was runner-up in the Derby in 2012.”
Collins is thankful that the final day of the meeting was put back six days. He says: “My fella got injured at Dundalk and his foot swelled up like a balloon.
“We treated it constantly with ice water and got the swelling down but it left the dog short of work coming into the National Meeting as we couldn’t gallop him due to the hard ground.
“The dog got a good hunt in his opening course and this took a bit out of him and the extra time we had allowed us to get him back right.
“”It was great to see him fly up that hill to win the Champion Stakes.”
Blueview Charlie will now run in the Irish Cup at Limerick.
Collins says: “The dog came out of Clonmel in great order and should go well at Limerick, which also has a long field.
“We plan on using him on a few bitches and then bring him back for a third season later in the year as he’s not three until May.
Collins bought Blueview Charlie as a pup at the age of three months.
He says: “Charlie was by my old dog Blueview Sam, who was runner-up in the Derby.
“He made his debut at Galway and did well making the final in which he stumbled in running.
“We could never get him right after that and was either injured or sick.”
Collins knew the dog was talented and kept him for this season and it wasn’t long before his faith was repaid when he won at Edenderry.
He says: “It was the first time for a while that we had him right and he won the stake easily enough.
“We ran him at Carlow three weeks later and he looked to have the stake in the bag before cramping solid in the final.
“It is still a mystery but there were no problems afterwards and he came out the following month and won at Old Kilcullen before getting to the third round at Dundalk.”
Maxi has three pups for next season. He says: I’ve got a couple of pups by Blueview Sam, one of which is a full brother to Blueview Charlie, out of a repeat mating to Moon Becky.”
