AN outstanding week at Ballybrit got even better for Gordon Elliott on day six when Winning Smut stayed on strongly to take the feature €110,000 BoyleSports Handicap Hurdle, though the biggest talking point from the listed event was the controversial start that saw prominent fancy Dream On Baby left at the tapes and subsequently declared a non-runner by the stewards. The matter is now to be investigated by a senior racing official, according to the Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board's stewards' report.

There was some late support for the Emmet Mullins-trained Dream On Baby in the ring, backed from 11/1 to 8/1 before the off, but she essentially never took part after the rest of the field kicked on and Donagh Meyler stayed a number of lengths behind. On the face of it, it seemed perplexing that the starter let the race begin when one of the runners was so far behind the pack. Meyler reported to the clerk of the scales that he was "the only one to do what he was told at the start and was left 10 lengths as a consequence".