MENTIONED elsewhere in this column, Chosen Mate ran disappointingly in the Grade 1 Grand National Hurdle at Far Hills, New Jersey last Saturday but point-to-pointing in the northern region still received a boost as the winner, The Mean Queen, claimed her maiden, on her debut, at Loughanmore, this time last year.

Now trained by Keri Brion for whom she previously won Grade 1 hurdles at Saratoga and Belmont Park, The Mean Queen won her point-to-point when in the care of Ellen Doyle who has two newcomers entered in today’s Jacksons Butcher Shop & Bakery four-year-old mares’ maiden at Loughanmore, Criquette (by Crillon) and Dollar Bae (by Sageburg).

Pennsylvanian trainer Leslie Young, who is married to a former multiple champion jumps jockey in the States, Banbridge-born Paddy Young, landed the two-mile–five-furlong handicap hurdle at Far Hills with Presence Of Mind who was making his American jumps debut.

This six-year-old Presenting gelding won a point-to-point maiden on his debut at Charlton Thornton in March 2019 for the Francesca Nimmo yard after which he joined Olly Murphy.

The final race on Saturday’s ‘Grand National’ card, a mares’ hurdle over two miles and a furlong was won by the Kate Dalton-trained Down Royal, a seven-year-old daughter of Alphabet Soup whose Irish connection was through her jockey, the trainer’s husband Bernard who jointly bred the winner.

At Fair Hill in Maryland, the name of Dromara trainer Neill McCluskey appeared in relation to a second-placed horse but this was as joint-breeder, along with John Carlisle, of the nine-year-old Lougherne Cappuchino mare Carsonstown who filled the runner-up spot in the CCI3*-L under the USA’s Hannah Sue Burnett.

BEST wishes to all the team at Down Royal who will be welcoming large crowds to the track’s two-day Ladbrokes Festival of Racing next Friday and Saturday. Let’s hope the weather is on-side especially for those intending to enter the Dr Emma Clinics best-dressed ladies’ competition on day two.