The last Group One race of the flat season, the William Hill Futurity Trophy Stakes was run at Doncaster on Saturday, with a couple of Irish raiders filling the first two places.

Favourite Delacroix under Ryan Moore lost out in the tightest of finishes by a nose from the Jessica Harrington trained Hotazhell, with the English hope Wimbledon Hawkeye in third.

With thoughts now turning to the jump scene, it’s been a good week for the combination of both father and son.

At Plumpton on Monday it was the turn of the Gillard family to make headlines with dad Mark and son Fergus completing a double on the day with Clinton Lane returning from a break to claim the opening race of the day at 11-1.

Kilcummin sprung a surprise in the two-metre handicap hurdle by holding off the challenge of the locally trained Saligo Bay at odds of 25-1 to complete a 155-1 double for the family duo.

Instant Gambler has been a revelation since switching from hurdles to the larger obstacles this season. The Alex Dunn trained eight-year-old made it four wins in a row after a comfortable seven-length victory at Fontwell Park on Wednesday.

Three of those successes have been at the Sussex track, and another win at Fontwell was never in doubt after a flawless display of jumping.

Local joint trainers Jim and Suzy Best are having a purple patch at the moment and made it three winners from their last six runners after Colours On Canvas justified heavy support in the market to prevail in the feature two-metre three-feet handicap hurdle on Wednesday.

However, the highlight of the afternoon’s action at Fontwell belonged to Naunton trainer Ben Pauling who bagged a quick fire double after saddling Golden Ambition and Samazul to victory and was denied a treble after Whats Up With You finished second.

It’s early stages in the race to be crowned champion national hunt trainer, but already Dan Skelton is setting down an early marker with prize money won of almost £600,000. Coupled with almost 70 winners the yard is flying at the moment, with a lot of the big guns yet to start their campaign.

Dan’s brother Harry is also high up in the jockey’s championship table alongside Sean Bowen, with the pair having ridden more than 60 winners each.

Last season’s champion jockey Harry Cobden is lagging behind at the moment due to missing a large chunk of the start of the campaign having suffered a knee injury . However, now is not the time to right off the man who was involved in a titanic battle with Bowen to be crowned champion jockey last campaign, with the verdict going right to the wire.

Another father and son combination hitting the headlines are Nigel and Sam Twiston-Davies. Father Nigel has already trained 25 winners, with son Sam hitting a milestone at Ludlow during the week after steering Dame Of The Cotswolds to victory to bring up his 1,500th winner in England.

By Peter Moore