Ballydoyle colt defies market drift for maiden win

Ballydoyle's Goolongong defied a market drift to win on seasonal reappearance at Navan today, landing the NavanRacecourse.ie Maiden under leading UK jockey Ryan Moore.

The three year old colt had finished fifth on his sole start, at Dundalk, as a juvenile last year and while briefly an odds-on shot this morning, drifted on the show from 11/8 to 5/2f.

In the race, Goolongong made virtually all and while strongly pressed by Nation's Call over a furlong out, stayed well to beat that rival comfortably by two and a quarter lengths.

Winning trainer Aidan O'Brien's representative Chris Armstrong said “he obviously had the one run at Dundalk last year and it stood to him. He's been progressing nicely over the winter and he's a horse that we thought had come forward an awful lot.

“Ryan gave him a lovely ride and he spoke very nicely of him. He'll fit into one of the (Derby) trials now and we'll see how he goes.

“He's a 1m2f-plus horse, has a lovely attitude and is a typical Australia. He's a nice horse to go forward with for the year, hopefully.” Gooloogong is a village located in central New South Wales, Australia.

Quotes from Gary Carson