THERE were a couple of northern-trained winners in the past eight days, the first coming during day one of the Northern Ireland Festival at Down Royal where Simon Torrens arrived with a well-timed challenge to land the three-mile Allianz Handicap Hurdle on Askann.

The seven-year-old Ask mare is trained in Co Tyrone by the rider’s uncle Mervyn whose wife Anne owns the chesnut. Simon has ridden the mare in all her runs since they finished third at the St Stephen’s Day meeting at Down Royal in 2017. Her only two previous starts this season had been over fences.