Gary Carroll got 11/8 favourite Abbey Vale up on the line to beat Dark Pulse by a short head in the mile auction maiden for two-year-olds at Dundalk.

The Ger Lyons-trained colt scooped a £10k Racing Post Yearling Bonus Scheme payout for winning and Lyons said: “He’s won his bonus and we thought he was a maiden winner in waiting.

“He’s a horse we like and was the first two-year-old we bought last year. He’ll be a nice horse and we’ll look forward to him over a mile and a quarter next year. We’ll put him away now.”

Dark Pulse (12/1) and Fergal Lynch set sail for home over two furlongs out, but Gary Carroll and Abbey Vale tracked them going into the final furlong and collared them late on.

Abbey Vale had been runner-up at Dundalk last week and that effort left him primed for tonight’s success.

Aidan O’Brien’s 14/1 shot One True Love finished third. She stepped up on her previous run here in July when 11th of 12 runners in a six furlong maiden. Polished Rock was well supported on course from 15/8 to 6/4, but finished second last in the nine-runner field.