THERE were a few northern-owned winners in the past week, highlighted by Royal Rendezvous who, under a brilliant ride from Paul Townend, carried the colours of Randox Laboratories’ Dr Peter FitzGerald to a hard-fought victory in the Tote Galway Plate on Wednesday evening.

Sent off as the 5/1 favourite, the nine-year-old King’s Theatre gelding won by a length and a length and a quarter from his Willie Mullins-trained stable-companion, Easy Game, and the badly hampered Modus (yes, that’s the one I backed!). It was great to hear Mullins talk about how well the horse had looked in the run-up to the race, relying on his eye to gauge the gelding’s wellbeing rather than science – apologies to those at Randox!