IT would have been a bit much to expect Irish trainers to match last year’s Royal Ascot successes with 12 winners via eight different trainers, but this year’s win total of 10 (five different trainers) was still ahead of expectations of the previous 10 years between 2013 and 2022, with the average during that time being 7.3 Irish winners at the meeting.

Irish horses travelled to the meeting in their biggest numbers to date, breaking three figures for the first time with 117 total runners, ahead of the previous high of 98 in both 2019 and 2021. Those increased figures might have led to a drop in place strikerate, that figure coming in at 21.3%, one of the lowest of recent times, so 10 winners in light of that means the ball hopped in favour of Irish trainers.