ONLY a handful of horses who visited the winner’s enclosure over the past week were bred by Northern Ireland breeders but two, both foaled in England, were bred by the one man, Alfred Buller, and were out of the same mare, Zaffaranni.

The first of the pair to strike was the 10-year-old Desert King gelding, Chill In The Wood, who was sent out by Dominic Ffrench Davis to land the extended three-mile, one-and-a-half-furlong handicap chase at Plumpton last Sunday, notching up his second success in the process. Two days later, at Warwick, the Neil Mulholland-trained Runasimi River, a six-year-old by Generous, recorded her third victory in the two-mile, three-furlong mares’ handicap hurdle.