Dream lives on for those with modest resources after Helvic's Gold Cup victory

It might have taken him 50 years to make the breakthrough, but Noel Meade's Group 1 triumph with Helvic Dream in the Tattersalls Gold Cup is the latest in an increasingly irrefutable book of evidence as to how accessible the top tier of the Flat scene has become.

At a time when the National Hunt realm has contracted markedly and is dominated by a select few, its summer counterpart continues to reward those with a keen eye for a bargain.

Cast-offs and small-scale trainers punching above their weight have been to the fore of late with Make A Challenge, Sceptical, Princess Zoe, Jet Setting, Skitter Skatter, Romanised, Champers Elysees and, more recently, Logo Hunter and A Case Of You spectacularly illustrating how the top echelon of a sector that for so long was closed to all but the most elite few is now reassuringly democratic.