Plough Boy made it three wins from his last four starts as he took the Cliffords Groundcare Limited Handicap under Robbie Downey for Garvan Donnelly.

The four-year-old son of Dandy Man won on his Irish turf debut at Tipperary last month before following up at Down Royal.

He was just beaten on his last start at Galway and he was sent off the 11/4 favourite (touched 3/1 on-course) this evening.

Settled behind the leaders in third he swept through to lead a furlong and a half from home and kept on well from there to record a comfortable length and a quarter success. Angel Of Joy (8/1), who raced in second and led from two furlongs out, had to settle for the runner-up berth under Colin Keane for Ger Lyons while the front-running Colour Rhapsody (6/1) was a further three parts of a length back in third under Declan McDonogh for John Oxx.

Garvan Donnelly said afterwards: "He was in good form but had a hard enough race at Galway but was freshened up well today.

"He likes fast ground and the track and trip suited - ideally he's a seven furlong to a mile horse. He's in at the Curragh on Saturday and we'll see how he comes out of this.

"He's on the upgrade and I think a bit of him. He's easy to train although he didn't seem to be madly in love with Dundalk and seems to likes these differing tracks more."

The original fifteen strong field was depleted to ten with the defections of Reckless Lad (lame), Bribe The Bouncer (going), Gregoria (in-season), Ibergman (going) and Bootsandbars (stiff).

STEWARDS REPORT

S. Foley, rider of Strait Of Zanzibar (USA) trained by K.J. Condon, reported to the Clerk of Scales that his mount did not act on the going (good, good to firm in places).

Additional reporting by Thomas Weekes