THE big winners over Irish Oaks weekend were British horses and Ger Lyons, and British success has been a theme throughout the current flat season. Through last Sunday, the 46 British runners during the Irish turf season have produced 10 winners but it’s not so much the number as the stature of those winners.

Three of them were classics, another a Group 1 along with three Group 2s, all but one of those wins coming at the Curragh. The Irish programme book for the second half of the season is surely being pored over by British trainers now.