THERE weren’t many northern-bred winners in the period under review but one who stood out was our old friend Mendip Express who won the amateur riders’ handicap chase at Sandown last Friday week under London-based Downpatrick native David Maxwell, owner of the gelding.

Trained by Philip Hobbs and winning for the eighth time on the track (he also has seven point-to-point successes to his credit), the King’s Theatre 12-year-old was bred by Elizabeth ‘Hammy’ Hamilton out of the Denel mare Mulberry, the dam of four other winners and a half-sister to the Grade 1-winning chaser Fiddling The Facts (by Orchestra).