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Team Ireland secured a last minute victory in the Racing League with a treble at Southwell on Wednesday night.
Wales & The West were leading the competition by two points entering the sixth and final fixture but Jamie Osborne's team still had two jokers to play - any points scored by those horses would earn double for the standings.
Tosen Wish landed the first of three victories for Ireland before jockey Ben Curtis completed a double on George Boughey's Thunder Moor and David O'Meara's Gulliver.
With Ireland boasting a 48-point lead entering the final race of the series, Osborne appeared to have an ace up his sleeve and played the final joker on the 4/1 favourite Valsad, ridden by Saffie Osborne. Although Valsad was able to win the twelve-furlong contest, Ireland's Star Harbour snuck into fourth to pick up valuable points for the team.
Ireland's Team Manager Kevin Blake said: "I think we were down 120 points at the halfway mark and two out of the first three weeks didn't go well, but in fairness to the lads, they really started to get behind us.
"I just can't believe it, but it is set up to be competitive and I genuinely feel for Jamie because he really thinks about this and is a genuinely one of the really good managers. It's sweet to beat one of the good fellas.
"You could be Sir Alex Ferguson, but you are going to finish last if you don't have trainers entering horses and running them, so we just lacked that in the first two years.
"Those first two years were hard, I'm competitive and it's not easy turning up every week and getting a hiding, so this has turned out particularly sweet.
"I'm a difficult fella to get excited, but I've been jibby about this for the last couple of weeks and I've put a lot of hours into it."
There was some consolation for Wales & The West manager Jamie Osborne, as daughter Saffie secured back to back victories in the leading jockey standings, 121 points ahead of her nearest rivals.
She said: "It's been a good Racing League for me this year, I've been lucky to get some good rides.
"Dad has done a phenomenal job of organising everyone and keeping everyone enthused and on top of that keeping everyone in the team happy.
"Obviously you have a lot of trainers who want to run their horses and getting to the last night and still having everyone relatively happy about the whole thing is a hard task, but he's done a brilliant job of it.
"Of course I'm also grateful for all the owners who put their horses in and they are obviously not in their own colours."
