Valour eases to victory in Roscommon opener

Act Of Valour made it third time lucky, as he ran out an easy winner of the season opener at Roscommon, the Irish Stallion Farms EBF Median Auction Maiden.

Fifth on his debut last October, the Michael O'Callaghan trained bay ran well to finish third on his return to action at Navan last month.

Sent off the 15/8 favourite today, the son of Harbour Watch disputed the lead with Apparition before going on with over two furlongs to race.

He had things under control with a furlong to go, staying on well from there to score easily by five lengths under Pat Smullen for Qatar Racing Limited. On The Go Again (20/1) came through to take second under Gary Carroll for Michael Mulvany, while Apparition was another three lengths back in third.

O'Callaghan said afterwards: "He's a lovely big horse and I thought a lot of him last year. He got hurt last year and it was probably a blessing in disguise. We got one run into him at the end of the year.

"He looks after himself. He's a genuine horse but is just a big baby. He had blinkers on the last day in Navan and we weaned him off them a bit with smaller blinkers today. We'll eventually take them off him completely as he's very genuine.

"He has a couple of nice entries over the summer but he will have to come forward again. Pat is mad about him. It was the perfect trip and he loved the ground. He's quite versatile as I think he wouldn't mind getting his toe in a bit."

The winner cost 75,000 guineas as a yearling and holds an entry in the 2000 Guineas at the Curragh later this month.

Additional reporting by Alan Magee