DOWNFORCE made light of the testing conditions to run out a most impressive winner of the Listed Cork Stakes on his seasonal reappearance.

The Willie McCreery-trained five-year-old travelled supremely well throughout on the heels of leader Spirit Quartz and was still full of running with two furlongs to travel, as the rest of the field came under pressure. Billy Lee let his mount stride on a furlong and a half out and quickly went further and further clear, eventually crossing the line 12 lengths ahead of Penny Pepper, with Only Mine in third.

McCreery said of his 3/1 winner: "He loves that ground and Penny Pepper finished second to us last year too (at the Curragh) so it's the same two and those Fast Companys love that ground.

"He just goes through it when others can't and I was delighted to see it barely raceable today. The ground, to me, is barely raceable and he was the only one who could handle it.

"We'll have to try him on a bit better ground now - I won't ever run him on firm but he has run crackers on good ground in the past.

"We'll keep stepping him up, he's a grand horse but today was his Derby as we have to make hay with him early on, and late on, in the year."

McCreery completed a double when Elm Grove (6/1) won the Follow Us On Twitter Apprentice Handicap over eight and a half furlongs. The half-length winner was ridden by Nathan Crosse.

IMPRESSIVE MAIDEN

Son Of Rest was another wide-margin winner as he justified odds-on favouritism in the five-furlong Irish Stallion Farms E.B.F. Maiden.

Trainer Fozzy Stack said of his 4/11 victor, who was six and a half lengths too good for Florida Times: "He doesn't kill himself when he hits the front so the race wasn't run to suit, but he was entitled to do that.

"He wasn't drilled for today by any means and I was half toying between coming for this race or the seven-furlong maiden but just thought the ground would be testing enough and came for this.

"He'll go for the Navan next month for a six-furlong listed race (run as the Listed Coolmore Stud Power Stakes in 2016) next."

The colt was ridden by Chris Hayes who then made it a double with victory on Angel Island (100/30) in the eight and a half furlong Like Us On Facebook Fillies Maiden. The So You Think filly is also trained by Stack and the winning margin this time was two lengths.

READ THE FULL CORK REPORT IN NEXT WEEK'S EDITION OF THE IRISH FIELD