'Cooking' Waltham wins well on debut

Waltham (4/1f) justified strong yard confidence in winning on debut today, landing Leopardstown's Vintage Voyager Maiden for trainer Ger Lyons and providing stable jockey Colin Keane with a treble.

Out of a half-sister to St Leger winner Brian Boru and from the first and only 2019 crop of ill-fated stallion Roaring Lion, who has already produced a Group 1 winner, Waltham today raced mid-field and quickened smartly to easily beat twice-raced King Leodegrance

Shane Lyons, representing his brother, said “he's a horse that we've loved at home and he's been doing everything right. He's just proved what we've seen at home but 'trip' horses need to come to the races to show that little bit extra, and he's done it.”

“We knew he'd been green, he's never been away from home and everything he did today is exactly what we thought would happen - he fell out of the stalls.”

He added “Colin loved him and I'd say he's pretty nice. He's 70/80 percent cooked - that's a cliché that people say but we genuinely mean that. He's only cooking.

“We'll take baby steps, we just wanted to see what we were seeing at home and he ticked that box. Granted the way our horses are running, he will stand out but at the same time we would have been very disappointed today if he didn't do that.”

Jockey Keane yesterday partnered his first Royal Ascot winner with Villanova Queen and head earlier partnered winners on Noel Meade's Chestnutter and Yvonne Latta's Everylittlestep

Quotes from Gary Carson