THE flat season in Ireland and Britain tends to end with a whimper rather than a bang at the best of times, and that was perhaps more so this year than usual.

Herculean efforts were made to get the show back on the road, and the intensity of the June to September period was always going to be difficult to sustain to the very end.

Ghaiyyath (129) was my idea of the Horse of The Year, in this part of the world at least, but he was retired late in the year having won at Meydan, Newmarket (in course-record time), Sandown and York, but come unstuck in a gruelling Irish Champion Stakes at Leopardstown. Enable (123) also retired to stud, while Battaash – the dominant five-furlong performer of recent years (but worth a rating of just 120 this year) – missed his end-of-season engagements.

The best winner in the final week of the season was probably another speedball in Dakota Gold, who took a listed race at Doncaster with a 111 time-based rating. Chamade managed a 97 figure under a well-judged ride in another listed race at the same venue, while Tomfre (107) and On To Victory (105) were useful handicap winners on the same card, the latter in the November Handicap.

There were also listed successes at Dundalk from Harry’s Bar (106, on the joint-fastest surface at the track this year) and at Naas from Barrington Court (108), the latter an especially strong time for the grade and fully 4.66s quicker than managed by 85-rated Son Of Hypnos in the handicap that followed.