IT was great to visit the lovely venue of Loughanmore on Easter Monday for the opening session of the annual East Antrim two-day meeting and be among the large crowd who enjoyed most of the afternoon until the weather disappointingly changed.

Still basking in the successes of former graduates of the Templepatrick nursery at Cheltenham, landowner Wilson Dennison was in excellent form. This in spite of the fact that, due to the season-ending injury incurred the previous day at Quakerstown by stable jockey Derek O’Connor, he and trainer Colin McKeever were finding it difficult to get riders for the large number of horses they had entered.