Shared honours on opening day of Flat season shows healthy state of affairs
The Flat is back. And with it, apparently, a chance for the smaller owner or trainer to take a larger slice of the cake.
That was the theme at Naas on Sunday. Yes, back in the high-flying world of Coolmore, the Sheikhs and other major international players, the opening day of the season was marked by a heartwarming Irish Lincolnshire win for Michael Mulvany's County Meath yard, Brendan Duke's victory in the first juvenile race of the season, a Madrid Handicap triumph for up-and-coming Ballingarry, County Limerick-based trainer Richard O'Brien, and a six-furlong maiden won by Alan Fleming, first and foremost a trainer of jumpers.
It's not hard to portray this as a welcome injection of variety after a winter in which the two giants of jump racing, their four most significant rivals, and a handful of massively resourced owners have carved up the lion's share of the spoils.
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