Dromantine victorious on nursery debut

Handicap debutant Dromantine (16/5 second favourite) landed the seven-furlong nursery to provide Ronan Whelan with a quick double.

The daughter of Lope De Vega, second home in a barrier trial here in August before showing some promise in maidens, tracked the leaders towards the inner before making good headway between horses in the straight. In front a furlong out, she kept on well to beat Alfarida by a length and a quarter.

Winning trainer Michael Halford said: "She ran very well (the last day) and is a filly we always liked. We trained her dam (Via Ballycroy) and she won four for us, she had a lot of pace. I trained the dam for the owners as well.

"We always liked this filly and things didn't really go right - we went to the Curragh one day and the ground was terrible, and just different things the way they came.

"She has just come into her rating now and she had a lovely draw tonight, kept it simple and quickened up well.

"She is a filly with a lovely pedigree and she could have the potential to improve. It is lovely for the family to have got her to win as a two-year-old but I'd say there is more to come."

Quotes from Michael Graham