Duplantis a work in progress but gets there under Roche

Duplantis made the most of receiving plenty of weight from the other contenders in the six-furlong nursery at Curragh to score despite drifting markedly left in the final furlong.

He improved into fourth on the outer at the furlong pole in his pursuit of Staysound Susie Jakajaro and Carnegie Hall and still had to reel them in in the final 100 yards.

He soon edged left, doing jockey Leigh Roche no favours, but he kept his cool and drove him home to catch the tussling trio on the inner close home.

The 14/1 shot beat 7/2 Carnegie Hall by a length with Staysound Susie a head back in third at 12/1.

This was Duplantis' handicap debut and trainer Ger Lyons said: “He’s mentally not cooked yet and is hard work. I thought Leigh did a fantastic job on him. I told him to take his time and ride him where he’s happy and if he can’t win off 66 I don’t need him!

“We gelded him after his first run and we said we’re going to have to run this lad as he’s coming home stupider than he went to the races. He’s a work in progress.

“I thought potentially he wants seven furlongs and he did everything in his power to throw it away and still won.

“Simon (Madden) came to me years ago to be a jockey and I think I said to him 'my only advise to you is disappear and earn some money and come back to me as an owner' and he did! I can’t remember, but that’s what he tells me. He’s involved with his father-in-law and it’s their first winner so it’s nice.”

Additional reporting by Alan Magee