AHEAD of the Ladbrokes Festival of Racing next Friday and Saturday at Down Royal, it was flat handlers who fared the better on the training front in the past week or so, with Natalia Lupini and Andy Oliver sending out two winners apiece

Both struck last Thursday week at the Curragh where, on his third start, Lupini’s charge Thebelmontgangster landed division two of the Irish EBF Median Sires Series Maiden for two-year-olds over a mile.