Cosmic Vega wins impressively for in-form Halford

Michael Halford sent out his fourth winner in the past eights days as Cosmic Vega routed ten rivals in the Kellihers Toyota Handicap at Killarney.

The Lope De Vega gelding won a Leopardstown maiden for Jessica Harrington on testing ground as a juvenile and had been running consistently well this year with soft ground here an obvious plus.

Ronan Whelan oozed confidence in the straight aboard the 6/1 chance and, after leading over a furlong out, soon stretched clear to beat Starting Monday by four and three-quarter lengths despite being eased in the closing stages. Dragon Of Malta was a further two and a half lengths away in third.

Whelan said, "On paper everything looked to suit - soft ground, going left-handed and the last day was his first run for a while and he definitely came on from that and was stepping up a furlong.

"He is quite hard on himself and everybody at home has done a good job getting him to switch off.

"We went good and hard which helped him to relax and when he races economically he has a turn of foot - anything after that I can't take too much credit!"

Quotes by Tom Weekes