Ballyburn and Cormac Abernethy are up-and-coming talents to watch in the north

Ballyburn made a strong impression at Loughanmore on Saturday, well handled by Cormac Abernethy to score for Colin McKeever in the colours of Wilson Dennison.

Cormac is a rider with plenty of experience, and his career started to kick off last year when he rode a couple of winners on the track, a novice chase at Down Royal and a handicap hurdle at Navan.

He ended last season with six wins and 11 places from 51 rides in points, and this was his second success of the campaign, after riding Tullyhill to score for the same connections at Moira.

The fact that Cormac is getting a chance to ride promising young horses for such a strong team can only be good for his confidence. He's definitely an up-and-coming talent on the northern scene.

Ballyburn is a promising sort and has a pedigree to match. He's a half-brother to Noble Endeavor who won the 2016 Paddy Power Chase at Leopardstown and four other races for Gordon Elliott, and to Minella Daddy, a very useful handicap chaser for Peter Bowen.

Sean Doyle's Annabelle Magic took the four-year-old mares' maiden in pleasing fashion under Rob James, making almost all the running and recovering well from a mistake at the second-last.

The winner of the five-year-old maiden, Mister Park, also impressed with a front-running display. Ridden by James Hannon for Ian Power, the Walk In The Park gelding readily accounted for a pair of Wilson Dennison runners from different yards

I rode another Walk In The Park youngster at Umma House. I was delighted with the Jonathan Fogarty-trained Down Memory Lane, who quickened in great style to win the four-year-old maiden by around ten lengths.

He was a €75,000 Derby Sale purchase from Jimmy Murphy's well-known Redonder Stud near Gowran and looks quite an exciting prospect.

Open scene is looking lively
The season is still in the early stages but we've already had some interesting additions to the open category.

Gordon Elliott produced the Grade 1 novice chase winner Hardline to win at Castletown Geoghegan at the beginning of the month and reintroduced The Storyteller, now 11, to take the ladies' open under Georgie Benson at Ballycrystal on Sunday.

Around this time two years ago The Storyteller won the Grade 1 Ladbrokes Champion Chase at Down Royal. He had been off since last year's Listowel festival but was good enough to beat Its On The Line, six years his junior and winner of two hunter chases for Emmet Mullins last season.

Last week I mentioned Brain Power, a winner of the Grand National Hurdle in the United States, now in action in points for Warren Ewing. After winning at Tyrella on his final outing last season and at Moira on his reappearance, the 11-year-old seemed to have another good opportunity at Umma House.

However, he couldn't match Brooksway Fair, who won from the front for Donal O'Connor, a 17-year-old from Cork having his first ride.

It's always good to see a young rider getting off the mark and special congratulations to a younger Mr D'Connor.

Brooksway Fair is a six-year-old who won a maiden at Knockmullen House for Denis Murphy in the early stages of the 2020 four-year-old campaign.

He joined Evan Williams and won a novice handicap chase last November. After that, he was a beaten favourite several times, and connections let him go cheaply for £6,000 at a Goffs UK sale last May.

Harley Dunne has him now, and he's obviously found his form again. Being only six and a brother to a horse called Mahlervous, who progressed into the 130s as a winning hurdler/chaser for Warren Greatrex, he could have a future in hunter chases or perhaps back on the track in handicaps.

Celebrations at Boardsmill Stud
There has been plenty for the Flood family, from Trim in County Meath, to cheer about in the last few days.

Their influential Boardsmill Stud stallion Court Cave was responsible for three winners in points at the weekend, and on Tuesday Boardsmill employee Stephanie McGinley was one of eight individuals who received an Irish Thoroughbred Industry Employee award at the annual ceremony to mark the contribution of those who work behind the scenes in the industry.

Congratulations to Stephanie and the other seven worthy winners, a group that includes many who have given long service to the industry.

With the help of Godolphin, these awards have done a great job of giving recognition to stud and stable staff.

It's wonderful to see, but I have one quibble. I feel that the jumping side of the sport was under-represented in the sharing-out of awards this time.

Apart from Stephanie and Imran Haider, a member of the Willie Mullins team, there was a strong Flat flavour. Bearing in mind that thousands of employees are working away on the jumping side all over the country, many of them in small yards where the workload is not widely shared, I think some more balance would be very welcome, with perhaps a special category for employees of stables of a certain size.