LAST weekend’s Ladbrokes Festival of Racing at Down Royal was totally dominated by southern trainers and jockeys, mainly Gordon Elliott and Jack Kennedy, with Co Tyrone-born Simon Torrens the only one to strike for the north – and even he lives in Co Meath.

Torrens’s win came in the three-mile Eventsec Handicap Chase on the Willie Murphy-trained, Stephen Campion-owned and bred Clonmeen.