AFTER three years’ absence, my sister Ann and I were delighted to attend Sunday’s Randox Ulster National meeting at Downpatrick where we spent the day catching up with our many friends in racing and other equestrian sports.

Parking up, the first person we saw was the chairman of the racecourse directors, Peter Stewart. We later exchanged a brief greeting with the ever-busy racecourse manager Richard Lyttle and the equally busy assistant manager Ruth Morrison, other directors such as Peter Magill and Stephen Magee and the day’s on-duty farrier, Rory Lavery. I also spent a bit of time talking to Gerard Tumelty’s mother Patricia.

I was so busy chatting over lunch with former Down Royal manager Mike Todd, his wife Donna and their daughter Caroline that I missed the first two races. Also in their company was Megan Dunseath who has returned from Australia to her native Randalstown and is now working at Philip McBurney’s Caherty Stables.

While she rode a winner during her time down under, Megan is now happy riding out while her sister Erin partners some of the yard’s pointers trained by Gerald Quinn.

Local winners

It was great that two winners were trained locally by Neill McCluskey and Sean McParlan with the latter’s Shantou Show being partnered to victory in the concluding hunter chase by Portglenone’s Cara McGoldrick.

That hunter chase was sponsored by Boardsmill Stud whose William Flood was another I was pleased to see, albeit briefly. William and representatives of Randox and the day’s other sponsors Cosy Roof, the FitzGerald family, the Tote, Toals Bookmakers and WKD were all thanked for their support by Richard Lyttle during lunch.

The feature race was one of three won by horses trained by Gavin Cromwell but his charge which interested me most was the Toals Bookmakers mares’ handicap hurdle winner Soldaro whose owners, I think, were parked beside us but never told us to back their Soldier Of Fortune five-year-old!

Out of the Beneficial mare Supreme Beneficial, Soldaro was officially bred in Derryboy by Anne Kirkwood but her husband Thomas and their son Nigel also play their part in the breeding operation. I was introduced to Nigel on Sunday by show horse producers Shirley and Tommy Moore.

While I was delighted to see the East Down huntsman Declan Feeney mounted to escort Keith Donoghue and Malina Girl back to the winner’s enclosure following their win in the Randox Ulster National, it was a pity to learn that hounds were not paraded before racing as they have been in the past.

Management took the opportunity on Sunday of opening the racecourse’s new grooms’ canteen and you can read all about that in Parrot Mouth in page 12 and see a photo on 39.

Having read about her win on the Notice Board page in Sunday’s racecard, we hope Shelley McCarthy has a great time at next week’s Randox Grand National at Aintree.