ALTIOR was the only horse to prevent a whitewash on Wednesday for the British in what was overall a Festival to forget for the home team. What’s more, Irish stables clearly house most of the best material for the future as well, perhaps none more so than the much-vaunted Samcro.

The Gordon Elliott-trained six-year-old had not set the stopwatch on fire when winning at the Dublin Racing Festival at Leopardstown but could not be faulted here, running the two miles and five furlongs 2.3s quicker than the useful handicapper Bleu Berry did in winning the Coral Cup while carrying 5lbs less.