Akecheta and Shane Kelly. © Photo Healy Racing
The Kevin Coleman trained Akecheta made a belated winning debut when staying on from out of the clouds to land the Irish Stallion Farms EBF Median Auction Maiden at Tipperary.
As the only four-year-old in the field, the daughter of Sioux Nation had to concede weight to all of her younger rivals. Sent off a 40/1 outsider, the grey looked set to justify those odds when hopefully outpaced early on. Straya made the running, with Glen Princess Pink Aurora and Tokenomics all prominent. The latter gelding travelled strongly under Luke McAteer, coming through to head the leader turning into the straight.
At that point, Akecheta was under presure back in tenth place, seemingly out of contention. Tokenomics began to thread water at the furlong pole as Counterculture came through in the centre to lead. Shane Kelly was hard at work on Akecheta back in fifth but was beginning to edge closer.
As stamina became an issue inside the last 150 yards, the Coleman trained grey filly found an extra gear to stay on powerfully to edge ahead for a half-length win.
Kevin Coleman said: "Paddy Twomey had her as a two-year-old and last year as well and he did all the work. I didn't do much but Paddy has bigger fish to fry.
"She is a nice filly and is smart. She is very big although looking at the pedigree, it says 'Sioux Nation' but she is all Dalakhani (from the dam-side).
"Coming out of stall 16 we thought she had no chance and wanted to get her a good education but the family seem to run well first-time-out.
"Brian O'Connor pre-trained her, did a lot of work and we just fine-tuned her."
Additional reporting by Thomas Weekes.
