IT has been another busy period for chief executive officer Emma Meehan and her team as the new management at Down Royal marked their first anniversary with the Molson Coors meeting at the track on Tuesday.

On an afternoon when the bookmakers had far the better of exchanges there was just the one Northern-trained winner in So Near So Farhh (12/1) who landed the Molson Coors Mares’ Handicap Hurdle over an extended two miles in the hands of Adam Short.

The five-year-old Farhh chesnut, who was making her handicap debut, is trained near Crossgar by Colin McBratney for his good friend James Murdoch. The pair bought the mare out of Mick Channon’s yard after she had won four times on the flat. This was just her fourth start for her new connections and her second at Down Royal.

Last Saturday night, Emma attended the 2019 Belfast Telegraph sports awards night in the Crowne Plaza Hotel where the Down Royal Hall of Fame award was presented by Willie John McBride to the now retired Rory Best who was introduced to the crowd as one of the most significant figures in the history of Irish rugby.

The winner of the Sports Star of the Year award for the third time in a row was World Superbike Champion Jonathan Rea, a big favourite of many in the Co Antrim hunting and point-to-point community.

RANDOX, the Crumlin-based healthcare diagnostics company, is to sponsor the Ulster National at Downpatrick for the next five years. The announcement was made on Wednesday at a launch hosted by the chairman and directors of the Co Down racecourse in Montalto House, Ballynahinch. The first running of the three-and-a-half-mile handicap chase under its new banner takes place on Sunday, March 22nd. For further details on this sponsorship deal, see page 32.