The weekend’s racing proved a real cat and mouse tale for both the men’s and ladies’ championship races.

The Brosna Foxhounds hosted a two-day meeting at Durrow, which got off to a dire start for current leader Jamie Codd. Having been armed with the indomitable Gordon Elliott-trained Gigginstown four-year-olds over recent weeks, he could have been forgiven for feeling confident of his chances in the second race of the day on Guerilla Tactics.

Having finished a very respectable second on his debut in Tyrella a few weeks ago, he was strongly fancied to better that performance on Saturday, but a disappointing run saw him only finish fifth, while the Elliott/Gigginstown second string, Attribution, went on to win well under Davy O’Leary.

This result is a prime example of why horses are not machines and training them is not a science. Attribution was certainly the lesser of the two horses at home on the gallops; he showed comparatively little to suggest he had the ability to beat his stablemate or to fulfill the potential his breeding suggested (he is a half-brother to Champion Hurdle winner Punjabi). But as can often be the case, he put his best foot forward when entered into race conditions and relished the competitive challenge.

Understandably, he ran quite green, which suggests there is plenty of improvement to come and he could be a horse to keep an eye on in the future.

The rest of the day saw Jamie’s formally extensive lead in the championship whittled down to just two as Derek O’Connor dominated the second half of the card, winning the final three races.

Day two of Durrow hosted the fourth Ladies’ Open of the season. At this stage, the ladies’ title race is a very close affair with plenty of girls on a competitive number of winners.

An early favourite for the title, Rachel Blackmore rode her fourth winner of the season on board 13-year-old Powerful Paddy for trainer Ian Kiely, which leaves her back level at the top of the leader board along with Maxine O’Sullivan and Evanna McCutcheon.

Sunday also saw an improvement in form for Jamie Codd, who booted home a massive four-timer while narrowly missing out on a clean sweep of five from five rides as his mount in the five-year-old geldings’ maiden fell while leading at the final fence.

Nevertheless, he re-established a healthier five-winner lead with his efforts at Monksgrange, as Derek managed just one winner at Dromahane the same day.