LOTS has happened since Irish Champions Weekend, it seems like more than a week ago that we were getting ready, but it is still worthy of reflection.

Yes, attendances were down, but attendances were always going to be down. Leopardstown did not have the Almanzor-Found-Minding three-card-trick from last year, and the Curragh had makeshift walls and a ceiling on attendance.

For all of that, there was a good buzz at Leopardstown, they still packed deep around the parade ring.

The spread of results was good. The visitors had five winners, Burnt Sugar in the seven-furlong premier handicap at Leopardstown, Ice Age in the six-furlong premier handicap at the Curragh, Suedois in the Group 2 Clipper Logistics Boomerang Stakes, Snazzy Jazzy in the Tattersalls Ireland sales race and, of course, Decorated Knight in the Qipco Irish Champion Stakes.

Indeed, Decorated Knight led home a British-trained 1-2-3 in the Irish Champion Stakes. That’s six years in a row now that the feature event on the feature weekend has gone for export, five times to Britain, once to France.

This race seems to go through nationalistic phases: went for export every year except one between 1985 and 1999, kept at home every year between 2003 and 2011, won every year by the visitors between 2012 and 2017. It’s time the Irish won it again now.

IRISH STARS

Aidan O’Brien was responsible for three of the five Group 1 race winners and for five winners in total over the course of the weekend, which was just about right. Any more, and there would have been cries of dominance. Any fewer and it would have been disappointing.

Ger Lyons, Willie Mullins, Jim Bolger, Dermot Weld and Aidan O’Brien all on the score sheet on Irish flat racing’s shop window. They are some of the people that you want to have in your shop window all right.

The bias away from the inside rail at Leopardstown may not have been as pronounced as it was last year, but it still may have been there. Seven of the eight winners all made their ground away from the inside rail, some of them, like Decorated Knight and Burnt Sugar, well away from it.

Nelson stayed flush against the inside rail and kept on well all the way to the line to win the Group 3 Willis Towers Watson Champions Juvenile Stakes. Bye Bye Baby almost held on in the fillies’ maiden.

Artful Artist made ground along the inside rail in the one-mile-five-furlong handicap, while St Stephen’s Green was in front along the inside in that race until deep inside the final furlong. Cannonball kept on strongly along the rail in the KPMG Enterprise Stakes. All of those horses can probably be marked up at least a little on the bare form of their respective runs.