Conflated an intriguing new star but racing should worry about odds-on takeover

With an outsider winning the Gold Cup and a hot favourite obliging in the Champion Hurdle, it could be said the Dublin Racing Festival had something for all punting tastes and those Cheltenham-esque scenes around the winner's enclosure as Rachael Blackmore returned on Honeysuckle suggests the event is getting plenty right in connecting with fans. We are five weeks away from finding out that, for many horses, it is also the ideal launchpad for a raid on the equivalent British prizes.

Those few trainers outside Ireland with a Gold Cup candidate have a new rival to worry about in Conflated, as if it wasn't enough to have A Plus Tard, Minella Indo and Galvin to beat. Well done if you foresaw his six-and-a-half-length success at 18-1. Hopefully, he was backed again by all those who made him 4-1 favourite for the Kerry National in which he unseated at the third. He must have been a good thing off 145 that day.

There has long been a suspicion that Conflated was better than he was letting on. Still, this was a revelation. A clash with Allaho in the Cheltenham race sponsored by Conflated's owner would be one to savour. He would have stamina to prove in the Gold Cup and yet it may be hard to resist going that way after a performance like this.