THERE was another small twist in the 2017 Irish jockeys’ championship road when Colin Keane had two winners from six rides at Gowran Park on Wednesday and Pat Smullen had none.

It wasn’t quite as significant a twist as there was at Roscommon on the last Monday in August, when Smullen had a four-timer, nor at Dundalk on the last Friday in September, when Keane had a treble. Nor at Dundalk last Friday night, when Smullen won on his first four rides and was beaten a short-head on his fifth, Bold Knight, in the last race, by Thunder Crash, who was ridden by Keane. (You couldn’t have written it.)