On the jockey’s championship front, last weekend was a pivotal one in the battle between Colin Keane and Pat Smullen.

Keane notched up a double on Saturday followed by a treble at Naas on Sunday and all this left him seven winners ahead of his rival heading into Friday’s fixture at Dundalk.

The reigning champion could easily strike back – as he showed when riding a four timer at Dundalk lately - but time is against him and he picked up a one day suspension on Saturday. As of this Friday there are just nine fixtures left this season and the manner in which the Ger Lyons team are finishing the season must put Keane in an especially strong position for the last fortnight of the campaign.

Sea The Stars son tops Book 2

Book 2 of the Tattersalls October Yearling Sale had an aggregate of over 48m gns represented a 24% increase on last year while the average of 78,340gns finished ahead by some 20 points and the median rose from 50,000gns to 55,000gns.

Overall it would appear that the middle market has held its own this year but in the upper echelons the level of demand has moved on to another level as evidenced by Book 2 where the number of 300,000gns yearlings increased from just two in 2016 to a remarkable 19 this time around. Book 2 benefitted from a major input by the Maktoum family and their associates and Sheikh Hamdan’s Shadwell Estates topped the leading purchasers list by securing 42 lots for just under 6m gns.

The SackvilleDondald agency signed for 32 lots while Godolphin picked up 12 yearlings for just under 3m.

A new auction record was set when the Shadwell team forked out 850,000gns for a son of Sea The Stars whose price eclipsed the previous record of 725,000gns set in 2015.