THE Prix la Barka is a race that usually goes a little under the radar, given that it is run in France just when the flat season is getting going. It used to be run in May, but these days they run it when you are trying to pick over the bones of Epsom and pick through the prospect of Royal Ascot.

It doesn’t go under Willie Mullins’ radar though. He fielded five of the nine runners in Sunday’s race, and he came home with the lion’s share of the prize money, with Mr Adjudicator winning the race and Bapaume finishing second.

Mullins has now won the last four renewals and he has won six of the last eight. Thousand Stars won it twice, once under Katie Walsh and once under Paul Townend, who also won the race last year on Bapaume. Ruby Walsh won the race for Mullins on Un De Sceaux in 2016 and on Shaneshill in 2017, and it was Bertrand Lestrade who rode Mr Adjudicator to victory on Sunday.

It will be interesting to see where Mr Adjudicator goes now. Winner of the Grade 1 Tattersalls Ireland Spring Hurdle last year, and runner-up to Farclas in the 2018 Triumph Hurdle, it took him a while to get going over hurdles last season, as can often happen with four-going-five-year-olds, but he won the big Ballymore Handicap Hurdle at the Punchestown Festival last month off a mark of 149, and his win on Sunday was probably another step forward.

Interestingly, now rated 157 over hurdles, he holds an entry in the Northumberland Plate at Newcastle on Irish Derby day, with a flat rating of 91. David Bobbett’s horse hasn’t raced on the flat since he won an apprentice handicap at Killarney under Killian Leonard in August 2017 off a mark of 75 on his final run for Joe Murphy, but he would be interesting in the Northumberland Plate if he took his chance in it now off that flat mark.