The Aidan O’Brien trained The Happy Prince ended a 14 race losing run at Navan today when landing the Irish Stallion Farms EBF Race under jockey Seamus Heffernan.

The son of Rip Van Winkle’s losing record is atypical of a Ballydoyle trained horse but the gelding had previously won twice in 2015, and was today beating Shergar Cup Dash winner In Salutem into second place, having made all the running for his length and three parts win.

O’Brien wasn’t present but Heffernan later explained “we thought plenty of him but he has been a bit disappointing.

“His last two runs have been good and he has come out of them well and hopefully he's going to show now what we think of him.”

By Tom Weekes, quotes from Gary Carson