WHAT a year Darley Australia’s Epaulette is having. A Group 1 win in the Chestnut Stakes, a third at that level for Soqrat in South Africa, is now augmented with a 10th stakes winner, this time in the northern hemisphere, with Insignia Of Rank winning the Listed Dubai Celebration Stakes at the Curragh.

Bred by Eamonn Phelan and Reuben Solomon, the four-year-old gelding was making his 21st start, but just his third in stakes company. Victory took his career earnings to more than £70,000, paying back with interest the 44,000gns Joe Murphy gave for him as a yearling when he purchased him from Tally-Ho Stud. A rarity, but Tony O’Callaghan was suffering a small loss on his pinhook, as he gave 45,000gns for the then colt as a foal.