Rock wins the Heritage for Weld & Smullen

Fascinating Rock justified odds-on favouritism as he landed the feature at Leopardstown, the Listed Heritage Stakes, providing Dermot Weld and Pat Smullen with yet another winner (15th of the new turf season).

Owned by Newtown Anner Stud Farm Ltd the winner won three times last season before finishing eighth in the Epsom Derby and last of five in the Irish equivalent.

Having started at 5/4 last night with Paddy Power he opened on-course the clear 9/10 favourite and he went off at those odds.

He chased the leaders for much of the contest and was poised to challenge in third on the approach to the straight.

He was ridden to lead inside the final furlong and kept on well under pressure to score by a length and three parts. Alive Alive Oh (13/2) ran a nice race to finish second under Wayne Lordan for Tommy Stack while Chopin was a disappointing sixth on his first start for Ger Lyons.

"It was a pleasing performance from him. He's very adaptable in that ground," said Weld.

"He'll probably come back here for the Amethyst Stakes (May 10th). He got a little bit tired in the last half furlong which I expected.

"He's up a good few kilos on last year but equally he has matured from last year. Hopefully he'll have a long and successful season. We'll look at races between a mile and a mile-and-a-quarter.

"He had a busy year last year and raced on very fast ground. He was a bit stiff and sore after the Irish Derby so we said we'd leave him off until next year.

"He's always been a very good horse. I see him campaigning here in the immediate future before travelling as the year progresses."

Additional reporting by Gary Carson