Blinkers work a treat on Secretary Of State

Wearing blinkers for the first time, Secretary Of State landed the feature race of the day, the Irish Stallion Farms EBF Premier Nursery, for the father and son team of Aidan and Joseph O'Brien.

Having finished second on four of his six starts to date and being the beaten favourite on five of those starts, blinkers were needed for him to finally get his head in front.

Sent off at the odds of 4/1 the son of Danehill Dancer tracked the leaders before making food progress to be close up after halfway. He then hit the front when travelling well over a furlong out. He soon went clear from there and held off the challenge of French Quebec (11/2) up the straight to score by a length at the line.

The 2/1 favourite Hurricane Ridge for Jessica Harrington and Fran Berry proved very disappointing finishing last of the seven runners.

Winning rider Joseph O'Brien said afterwards: "He did it well and picked up nicely. The first time blinkers helped.

"He jumped well and got a nice lead. It was very uncomplicated and he was genuine and stayed going all the way to the line."

Donal Murphy