THE flat turf season has opened with a burst of competitiveness, the 16 races across the two meetings at the Curragh and Naas producing 16 different winning trainers. The powerful yards have been among those winners and will come into their own as the year progresses but for the moment there has been a broad spread of success.

That has been seen in the two premier handicap winners so far, the Lincolnshire won by Orandi for Tony Martin and the Madrid won by East Hampton for David Marnane. Both trainers have been a while without a top flat handicap win in Ireland, Martin’s most recent coming with Melburnian at Leopardstown in 2019, Marnane all the way back in 2010 with Bangalore Gold at the Curragh.