THE first Grade 1 card of the winter is much anticipated but Down Royal underdelivered this year with the going deemed unsatisfactory by many connections, 14 ground-related non-runners on Friday followed by 20 more on Saturday.

Gordon Elliott made his feelings clear in words, saying that ‘it wasn’t good enough [and] you can’t depend on the rain’ while Henry de Bromhead spoke with his actions, taking out a spate of fancied runners after Cite Florale disappointed in the opener on Saturday.

The track had started the week with a mainly yielding description that had become good by Saturday despite overnight watering that felt a touch after the fact.

The two highest-rated runners in the Remembering Envoi Allen Chase were taken out, leaving a field of five that already lacked a Closutton runner, and Paul Townend made all on Haiti Couleurs, something that became a theme in the chases on the card.

Townend kept the revs high in front, and despite some minor errors, the winner found plenty. The race-fit runner-up Fleur In The Park had every chance and was beaten on merit while Banbridge was not at his best. Perhaps he was unsuited by a more positive ride than is often the case, or age could be catching up with him.

Interesting to consider

The fourth home, Romeo Coolio, is an interesting one to consider. Strong in the market despite his trainer saying the run would be needed, he travelled best to the three pole but was beaten a furlong later before finishing tailed off. Stamina seemed the obvious excuse, but perhaps fitness was an issue too.

Elliott got back on track in the Grade 2 second season chase, albeit facing little opposition. In a race run at a slow tempo, Kala Conti controlled things and added to her excellent record up to Christmas while her stablemate and runner-up Jacob’s Ladder appeared to find the ground much too fast.

Earlier on the card, Admiral Will Brown made an excellent start over hurdles and looks one to follow. Returning from a 76-day break, he hurdled slickly for a yard that is flat-focussed, impressing with how he came back on the bridle for a slight nudge after three out before finishing off strongly.

The form may not amount to much, the second ridden with an eye to later and the fourth seemingly not handling the ground, but the visuals were taking and he was unexposed on the flat so there should be more to come.

His trainer revealed afterwards that there had been interest in him from jumps yards in England, so he seems the right type of the job.

Performances of note.

The two-mile handicap hurdle was weakened by non-runners but there were still some performances of note. Arch Empire only finished ninth but looked an unlucky loser after making a terrible mistake at the last when about to challenge for the lead.

At least as interesting next time might be the third Lieber Nicc. He won this race in impressive style last year that suggested he could follow up but this was his first run since and it looked as if it was needed.

He was ridden forward last year but he was dropped out this time and made good headway on the outer after three out before finishing off well while not getting a hard time. His connections have a link to Leopardstown and the Christmas meeting there seems a likely target, with the valuable two-and-a-half-mile handicap hurdle on December 29th perhaps the most suitable race for him.

He has done most of his racing over further but has long looked like further would suit and that was the case again here.

DOWN Royal hosted the first Grade 1 of the jumps season last Saturday and now seems a good time to take stock of this type of race as they come thick and fast over the winter.

This group of races have several consistent patterns over the past five seasons. There are now 34 Grade 1s run each jumps season, down from a high of 37 between 2018/19 and 2023/24, and they have attracted an average of 257 runners across the last five seasons, the number never lower than 251 or higher than 262. The average field size in that time was 7.1 runners.

Willie Mullins has dominated these races, both in terms of runners and winners in those five seasons between 2021/22 and 2025/26 as table 1 shows shows.

There was a time when Horse Racing Ireland sought to bunch the so-called ‘Big Four’ trainers (Mullins, Elliott, de Bromhead and Cromwell) together and exclude them from a subset of races and perhaps there was some justification for that looking at their overall numbers.

Their Grade 1 records tell a different story, however. There is no ‘Big Four’ – rather it is a ‘Big One’ followed by another powerful yard albeit one that has less than half as many Grade 1 runners as the industry leader, with those following Elliott up tending to have around half as many runners as the trainer above them in the table.

Trending up

Mullins has never surpassed 50% of the Grade 1 winners in a season, but he has come close, and the percentage has been trending up for the past decade. Between the 2015/16 and 2021/22 seasons, his percentage of total Grade 1 runners was typically in the 30s but that number jumped to 47% in 2022/23 and 49% in 2023/24. Those figures have fallen back to 44% and 42.5% in the last two seasons, however.

2025/26 saw the fewest Mullins-trained runners in Irish Grade 1s since 2021/22, and this was a contributing factor to one of the most competitive recent seasons in top level races. He had 15 Grade 1 winners, down from totals of 21, 25, 25 and 23 in the four previous seasons.

Gordon Elliott (nine Grade 1 winners) had his best season since 2018/19, and 10 different trainers won a Grade 1. That was the highest number since 2018/19 but is an outlier in recent years as during the four previous seasons the number of individual trainers winning a Grade 1 in Ireland were seven, five, eight and seven.

Narrow spread

That 2023/24 campaign saw a particularly narrow spread of winning trainers, Mullins with 25 winners, Elliott with seven, two each for Martin Brassil and Jimmy Mangan, one for Joseph O’Brien. The presence of names like Brassil and Mangan via Fastorslow and Spillane’s Tower show that smaller yards can still get a top horse, but it is getting harder.

In that season, just 32 different trainers had a runner in an Irish Grade 1. That was the lowest number in recent years and a far cry from the mid-2010s when there were 50 or more different trainers that had a horse good enough to run at the top level.

The last two seasons have seen a slight rebound in terms of different yards being represented in Grade 1s – 44 each in both 2024/25 and 2025/26 – and hopefully that might continue this winter.