Bobby's Kitten impresses on Irish debut

The Dermot Weld trained Bob's Kitten ran out an impressive winner of the Listed Cork Stakes on his Irish debut.

Formerly trained in America, the five-year-old entire last tasted success when winning the Grade 1 Breeders' Cup Turf Sprint at Santa Anita in November of 2014.

Having opened at 7/2 last night he proved easy to back and went off a 5/1 chance in the colours of Ken Ramsey.

Prominent throughout on the outer he cruised through to lead a furlong and a half from home, sprinting clear inside the final furlong, going on to score easily by eight and a half lengths. Flight Risk finished second at 7/2 under Kevin Manning for Jim Bolger, while the 5/4 favourite Great Minds was a very disappointing fifth under Wayne Lordan for Tommy Stack.

Pat Smullen was aboard the winner and he said afterwards: "Obviously his form spoke for itself but it was hard to be confident with the ground the way it is. He's a free going sort who does his work on his own.

"I didn't know if he'd handle it. His ability got him out of trouble rather than going on it and in the last furlong he was lying up on the fence looking for a bit of help.

"He has enough ability for me and I was very impressed with him - he got the six (furlongs) well and while five is a bit short at the stage, he could go up another furlong.

"He'll be there at the highest level over six furlongs and all those big races are open to him."

Additional reporting by Thomas Weekes