IN these pre-Cheltenham weeks, it’s hard to get really enthused about what’s happening on the flat, but there were a few winners of interest on the varying artificial surfaces in Britain and Ireland in the period under review.

On the Polytrack at Dundalk last Friday evening, two northern owners had their colours carried to success, with the opening Smart Money’s On Coral Handicap over five furlongs falling to the Tom Madden-ridden Hee Haw who was winning for the first time in Ireland.

The five-year-old Sleeping Indian gelding, who scored four times on grass when trained first by Keith Dalgleish and then by Paul Midgley, is now in the care of Ado McGuinness whose assistant, Stephen Thorne, bidding through his Shamrock Thoroughbred agency, purchased the bay for just 6,000 guineas at Tattersalls Newmarket in late October.

Hee Haw is now owned by Mark Devlin.

The feature race of the evening, the Coral Best Price Guaranteed All UK and Irish Races Handicap over six furlongs fell to the 33/1 shot Togoville.

Trained near Castleblaney by Anthony McCann for Armagh’s Patrick McCann, the nine-year-old Verglas gelding wrote himself into the history books by becoming the first horse to win 10 races on the all-weather at Dundalk. You can read more about the grey on page 6.

Earlier in the day at Lingfield, the Paddy Mathers-partnered 12-year-old Medicean gelding Loyalty recorded his 18th victory (all of which have been on a ‘surface’) when landing the seven-furlong handicap by a battling length.

Trained since the summer of 2010 by Derek Shaw, Loyalty first visited the winner’s enclosure in December that year at Wolverhampton where Mathers was also in the saddle.

From last Thursday to Wednesday just past, the Downpatrick-born jockey rode two winners for Shaw at Chelmsford.