Grogan lands a gamble with Katla

Dairy farmer John Grogan from between Rosegreen and Cashel in County Tipperary, has only two horses in training but he struck a nice blow for the 'small man' when Katla also owned and bred by the restricted licence holder, justified support from 9/2 into 9/4 in the opening Irish Stallion Farms European Breeders Fund under Billy Lee at Cork.

The daughter of Majestic Missile prevailed by a length and a quarter and two lengths from Jamesie and Tom Sawyer

A delighted Grogan commented in the aftermath: "That was her Derby and we'll put a for sale sign on her now. I had a winner before, Be Dignified at Ballinrobe in 2004 and my other horse at the moment, a first-timer runs at Naas tomorrow. Katla is the first foal of the mare (Bratislava) so it is great.

"We covered her up in the Curragh the last day and I'd suppose if we'd made more use of her we could have won. It's easy say that now though as it is hard for a small fellow to go to the Curragh and be confident."

Grogan was also keen to credit the Stacks and Marnanes for the use of their gallops.