Well-bred Laburnum makes a winning debut Laburnum, a full-sister by Galileo to Roderic O’Connor, made a winning debut in the Irish Stallion Farms EBF Fillies Maiden at Gowran Park. Her dam Secret Garden had already produced six winners including the aforementioned 2011 Irish 2,000 Guineas hero, who was partnered to that classic success by a then 17-year-old Joseph O’Brien. Seamie Heffernan has been making the most of his opportunities for the Ballydoyle team since the resumption of racing last week and brought his tally to 11 winners in the space of just nine days. The 2/1 chance was prominent throughout and kept on well inside the final furlong to beat 10/11 favourite Thunder Kiss by a length and three quarters. Sweeproad cut out a lot of the running and belied odds of 100/1 by keeping on one paced to take third another two and a half lengths adrift. Heffernan said, “She’s very well-bred, had been working nice and has brought her work to the track. I’m very happy with her. “Some of them work very well and don’t bring it to the track but she did.”
