Sara Valentina easily lands her maiden at second attempt

The Dermot Weld trained Sara Valentina took a significant step forward from her initial outing when proving far too strong for her rivals in the opening Ryans Cleaning Maiden at Limerick.

Sent off 9/2 for her debut at Leopardstown last October, the Moyglare owned filly didn't appear to stay the mile as she weakened late on to finish 9th of 12.

Dropped back in trip here on her three-year-old debut, the Chris Hayes partnered winner looked a completely different proposition.

Held up in mid division early on, Hayes switched his mount to the wide outside entering the home straight, sweeping past rivals to lead at the furlong pole.

Staying on strongly inside the final furlong, Sara Valentina had four lengths in hand of runner-up Emerald Harmony at the line.

Kris Weld said: "she won nicely, is a beautifully bred filly and is from a family we know extremely well. She had a reasonable run in Leopardstown and put that experience to good use today.

"She was well beaten - finishing ninth, on her debut so was entitled to get into this race but equally this is a family which improves with age."

He added "hopefully she can progress through the year and we'll look for a conditions race for her somewhere in a few weeks' time. I think she'd like better ground although the ground isn't as bad as we thought it would be.

"Stiffer tests will await."

Additional reporting by Thomas Weekes.