A BACK-to-form Sir Lucan headed a fine afternoon for Aidan O’Brien as he upstaged his odds-on stablemate Wordsworth in the Listed Irish Stallion Farms EBF Yeats Stakes which took centre stage in a treble for the Ballydoyle trainer.
Sir Lucan’s season began with an underwhelming display in last month’s Sandown Classic Trial but the form of his last two starts as a juvenile – in particular his fourth in the Beresford Stakes – made for good reading.
Wayne Lordan slotted in behind the leaders for much of this one-mile, five-furlong contest and early in the straight he looked to be going that bit better than the front-running Wordsworth.
The latter found plenty when pressed but the Derby hopeful eventually succumbed to Sir Lucan deep inside the last furlong as the 11/2 chance got home by a neck.
Genuine
“He’s a very straight-forward, genuine colt and he’d a very good run in the Beresford Stakes,” said Lordan.
“Seamie’s horse fought back very well when I joined him but I felt the best horse won at the line.
“He’s a colt who is going to compete well at this sort of trip.
The Entertainer
clinical winner
SEAMIE Heffernan partnered the other members of the Ballydoyle treble which began with a taking success for The Entertainer in the Irish Stallion Farms EBF Maiden over an extended five furlongs.
The 9/4 joint-favourite looked as though he might struggle to get a run at a vital stage of the race and things only opened up for him inside the distance. When he got into the clear though this son of Caravaggio was clinical and impressive.
He led 50 yards out but he was going away at the line where he had a length and a half to spare.
“I didn’t get a run for a long way at the business end but his turn of foot and class kicked in,” remarked the rider. “I thought I was going to be an unlucky loser but in the end he bolted up.”
Trainer-rider Gearoid Brouder was hit with a six-day whip ban for his efforts on the sixth-placed Stickyourneckout and he then picked up a further three-day ban for careless riding.
Powerful Operandi
By contrast Heffernan’s other winner had victory in safe keeping from some way out as the 90-rated Modus Operandi (5/2) ran riot in the 10-furlong maiden to score by 11 lengths.
This Frankel colt was beaten a head and a neck on his first two starts this season but it was all change as he put his rivals to the sword over the last two and a half furlongs.
He looks ready to hold his own at a higher level of competition.
White Lavender sweet smelling
A REALLY positive few weeks for Joe Murphy continued as the owner-trainer struck with a lovely type in White Lavender in the median auction maiden over an extended five furlongs.
This Heeraat filly comes from the immediate family of a trio of top-class runners in Xtension, Harry Angel and Supremacy and evidently possesses plenty of her family’s prowess.
The 33/1 newcomer, who was providing Gary Carroll with the first leg of a double, came from well off the pace and a strong last furlong charge on the near side enabled her to nail Swift Flight on the line. The initial impression was that the latter had hung on but the television angle at Navan is a notoriously deceptive one which was borne out by the result of the photo-finish.
“She’s a lovely filly and was produced by a very good breeder in Paul McCartan. She’s always gone nicely at home and I expected her to run well but I’m surprised she’s won,” reflected Murphy.
Carroll double
Carroll then struck on the resurgent Kevin Coleman-trained Only Spoofing (11/1) in the five-furlong handicap. A course and distance winner for Jedd O’Keeffe in 2018, the now nine-time winner had dropped 8lb in three runs since returning to Ireland and he looked to be restored to peak form here.
He held every chance nearing the last furlong and then powered home to defeat Sounds Of Spring by three lengths after Carroll once again opted to come close to the stand’s rail. “He loves this track and coming back to five furlongs helped him – he’s never won beyond five furlongs,” declared the trainer of the Seamus and Hilary Mannion-owned winner.
Sunny victory
Carroll was also on board the 5/4 favourite Swelltime in the second division of the one-mile five-furlong handicap but the pair had to settle for third behind the Finbarr Hand-trained 50/1 winner Santorini Sun whose victory was Siobhan Rutledge’s last as a 7lb claimer.
The winner and Carried dominated this race to the exclusion of everything else and their race-long duel for supremacy ended with Santorini Sun winning by four and a half lengths with Carried finishing five and a half lengths clear of the others. The victorious daughter of Born To Sea was winning for the first time in nearly four years.
THERE was a great success for the Coakley family as Park Row, trained by Denis Coakley and ridden by his son Ross, rolled back the years to win the second division of the one-mile, five-furlong handicap to break a losing run stretching back to February 2019. The evergreen 11-year-old showed signs of returning to form when fourth at Limerick last time and he built on that to see off Banjo having struck the front over two furlongs out. Denis Coakley part-owns the thoroughly likeable veteran along with his father, Patrick, and Joseph Costello. “Two runs ago I’d felt he’d lost his spark but we tricked around with him and his last run at Limerick gave us hope. The trip suited as did the bit of juice in the ground,” observed the winning rider.
The card also featured a victory for Park Row’s former trainer John Feane who bagged the 45-65 rated sprint handicap with Art Of Unity. On his first run of the season, the Declan Lynch-owned 16/1 chance blazed a trail for Gary Halpin and finished with three lengths to spare over Eleuthera.