Racing’s week for firsts and records

First Irish National success

Willie Mullins finally winning the Irish Grand National with 6/1 favouirite Burrows Saint, ridden by Ruby Walsh, beating stablemates Isleofhopendreams and Acapella Bourgeois

First Group race success

Keystroke, at 66/1, giving Stuart Williams his first Group race win, when jockey Adam Kirby prevailed in three-way photo-finish for the Group 3 Abernant Stakes at Newmarket, thwarting a hat-trick of victories in the race for favourite Brando, who was third

First Grade 1 success

Rachel Blackmore, challenging for the Irish jump jockey’s title and with two wins at the Cheltenham Festival, won her first Grade 1 race when Honeysuckle won the Irish Stallion Farms EBF Mares Novice Hurdle Championship at Fairyhouse, trained by Hendry de Bromhead

Landmarks achieved

Paul Nicholls (pictured) trained his 3,000th British jumps winner when Kupatana won at Cheltenham – Nicholls is the third trainer to reach 3,000 winners, with Martin Pipe finishing his career with 3.930 wins and Nicky Henderson currently on 3,108

♦With six winners on Easter Sunday, Dan Skelton, in his sixth season as a trainer, reached a season’s total of 200 jump winners in Britain, a feat which only Martin Pipe has previously achieved

Guineas reckoning

Skardu getting quotes of 6/1 for the 2000 Guineas when winning the bet365 Craven Stakes at Newmarket for William Haggas, with James Doyle aboard, and maintaining his unbeaten record including a prior Newmarket victory, to beat the two fancied Godolphin rivals Zakouski and Royal Marine, the latter finding traffic but coming home with a wet sale to grab fourth place

♦Qubala winning the Nell Gwynn Stakes at Newmarket for Roger Varian, and seeing her price drop from as big as 66/1 before the 1000 Guineas trial to 6/1 favouritism for the classic next month

♦Charlie Appleby and Roger Varian each trained four winners at the Craven meeting

♦Bet365 are to sponsor the Craven meeting for another three years

Getting the needle

Annie Mc, owned by the Coral Championship Club, being withdrawn from the EBF Mares Novices Hurdle at Fairyhouse due to a vaccination error – the 5yo trained by Jonjo O’Neill was unable to run as a required vaccine wasn’t recorded on the passport

Cooling off

With his price drifting, Too Darn Hot was announced as a non-runner in the 2000 Guineas, with trainer John Gosden saying he’d now be looking at running him in the Irish 2000 Guineas or the Dante at York

Emotional win

Trainer Richard Fahey winning with Pacino in a race at Beverly in memory of Laura Barry, who rode for Fahey but died from cancer aged 25 the day before she was due to marry Ben Hamilton, whose brother Tony rode Pacino to victory

Back for the Finale?

Bryony Frost (pictured) could be back in actions at Sandown’s Jumps Finale meeting after breaking her collarbone just over a month ago in a fall at Southwell – she plans to ride-out on Thursday and return to the track on Saturday

Out in the midday sun

Three fixtures, two in May and one in June, are to have first races at noon to trial the appeal of early starts for increasing betting turnover – the tracks trialling the midday starts are Southwell, Newton Abbot and Nottingham

Colour coded

Changes are being made to the photo finish arrangements at Sandown Park, following an incorrect result initially being given for a race at the track last month when the Judge was inadvertently handed an image of the wrong finish line – an additional check will take place between the Judge and the Photo Finish Operator to confirm that the cameras are aligned to the correct winning line, the winning posts and the movable winning post top are to be made as distinguishable as they can be using an identifying band of luminous paint of different colour for the respective chase and hurdle course winning posts

Godolphin reverse decision

Stud and stable staff awards are to continue to be sponsored by Godolphin in an apparent U-turn after an earlier marketing spend review, which also sees continued support of the Yorkshire Oaks which will have £400,000 prize-money in 2019, an increase of £50,000 – the reversal came too late for the Curragh which is soon to announce a new sponsor for the Irish Oaks after the course thought it was going to have to find a new backer

Ayr’s ground hits trouble again

 On the bounce

Newmarket managing director Amy Starky was getting  around the Suffolk course on crutches after fracturing her ankle in a trampolining accident

Roodee record

Guinness World Records have acknowledged that Chester is the oldest racecourse still in operation, tracing racing back 480 years to 1539

Open record

The Middleham training centre Open Day attendance was estimated at just short of 4,000, a record for the event sponsored by Arc and raising funds for Racing Welfare