Johnny Murtagh moved on the 30 winners mark for the season at Navan today as the trainer's Qatar Racing owned Archaeology landed the opening Irish Stallion Farms EBF Maiden under jockey Shane Foley.

The son of Charm Spirit, backed from 11/4 to 2/1 on track, moved past principal danger and 6/4 favourite Erich Bloch in the closing stages when scoring a three parts of a length win.

Afterwards Murtagh said “he was probably one of his nicer two-year-olds but just took a little bit of time to come, mentally more than anything else.

“Physically he's always been fine, he's a big horse and has shown plenty of speed. He's just getting it together now, as you can see he sweats up a bit.

“Shane said he was a bit unlucky the last day but he got it all together today and battled on well which was very pleasing.

“He's got plenty of ability, hopefully he'll go forward from this and we might look at the Birdcatcher if he could get into it down the bottom.

“I'm very happy to reach 30 for the year - it's a good achievement, and it's another two-year-old winner which is good. We've had a quiet run for Sheikh Fahad this year so it's great to get a winner on the board.”

Quotes from Gary Carson