Thurles remains good

Sonny Carey has enjoyed a fine season with eight of his 12 individual runners having hit the target, two of them at Downpatrick on Sunday, and the Caragh handler had news of a couple of mares in his yard.

Easter weekend is coming up and that means Fairyhouse’s Festival takes centre stage, with Monday’s Irish Grand National the main event.

Nicky Henderson sees no reason to deviate from the plan after Constitution Hill was given a “perfectly fair” official Flat rating of 101 by the British Horseracing Authority following his all-weather victories at Southwell and Kempton.