French Emperor a strong son of Holy Roman Emperor, put up a nice performance to land the Irish Stallion Farms European Breeders Fund Auction Maiden at Leopardstown.

The well-backed Gin Rummy made the running but he ran off the home turn, carrying Perfect Godess with him, and apparently gave the favourite, Pinkisthecolour a golden opportunity to go and justify her position in the market.

However the Colm O'Donoghue-ridden French Emperor took over a furlong and a half out and went on to prevail convincingly with the aforementioned Pinkisthecolour (found to be clinically abnormal afterwards) eased pretty quickly when beaten.

Eddie Lynam trains French Emperor (supported from 14s into 6s when sixth on his debut at Dundalk) for Trevor Dalzell from Markethill in County Armagh and the County Meath-based handler said: "He did it well. We were disappointed with him first time out as we think he's useful.

"He'll go to Naas now at the start of June for a new race there – a six furlong race for colts. I don't know whether he'd be good enough to win but hopefully he'll get a placing anyway.

"Trevor is a gentleman to train for and he bred this one and has the dam – Se la Vie. Hopefully that's the first leg of a double as United play Chelsea after four today!"

It was a lucrative success for French Emperor as connections also picked up the £10K Racing Post Yearling Bonus.