WHILE the organisers were delighted to see southern trainers support the Route point-to-point by making the long journey up to their new venue outside Portrush last Saturday it was also good that Northern handlers supplied four of the six winners.

On his first start between the flags, it was particularly rewarding for Co Antrim owner/breeder Bill Porter that Ramore Will justified favouritism in the Stonebridge Premium Feeds five-year-old geldings’ maiden. The Ian Ferguson-trained Tikkanen grey initiated a double for the in-form Noel McParlan in the process.

Ramore Will, who was down the field in a maiden hurdle and a bumper in March, is the first of just three recorded foals out of the unraced 2006 Silver Patriarch mare Gill Hall Lady, who comes from the family of Frenchman’s Creek.

Two days earlier, the deceased Tikkanen sired the winner of the two and a half-mile handicap chase at Carlisle in the shape of the Raymond Shiels-owned and trained Tikkandemickey.

Bred outside Hillsborough by Alistair Thompson, the 10-year-old is the eldest of just three recorded foals out of the Needle Gun mare Miss Vikki, and is followed by the winning Court Cave gelding Liberty Court.

Thompson bred another recent winner by Court Cave in Mercers Court, who recorded his sixth track success when landing a novices’ handicap chase at Plumpton earlier in the month. The Neil King-trained eight-year-old is out of the unraced Kahyasi mare Vikki’s Dream, dam also of the dual Downpatrick winner Bertie Bell (by Kalanisi), who is trained for Thompson by Brian Hamilton.