Damian English made a speculative entry with his North Wind for May's Irish 2,000 Guineas during the week and the upwardly mobile trainer helped offset some of that E10,000 outlay when sending out Mokhalad to win the Royal Ascot Trials Day 19th May Handicap at Naas today.

Ridden by Donagh O'Connor, Mokhalad, a son of top stallion Dubawi, justified 3/1 favouritism when beating Clifftop Dancer by three parts of a length.

Afterwards English stated “he ran a blinder in Navan the last day and we were thinking of going back to Navan but this race came up and it looked an ideal opportunity.

“Donagh gave him an absolute peach. He didn’t travel as well as he did the last day, and the ground was probably a little bit livelier today.

“He was third in Galway last year and we are going to try and get back there this year.”

Quotes from Alan Magee