THE Irish challenge for Royal Ascot was dealt some blows in the weeks beforehand, three leading chances in Kyprios, Porta Fortuna and Albert Einstein ruled out of the meeting, so two winners on the opening day of the meeting was no bad return.

Gstaad is the sort of name that will get the pronunciation police in a twist, but everyone knows about him after his Coventry romp where he put in a particularly sharp penultimate furlong that took upwards of two lengths out of the field and settled the race.