Friendless Tombelaine another for Weld

Dermot Weld recorded his third 12/1 maiden winner of the week (Bush Pilot on Sunday and Marsali yesterday) as the friendless Tombelaine took the second at Leopardstown, the Irish Stallion Farms EBF 2yo Maiden, scoring in good style on his debut under Pat Smullen.

The Khalid Abdullah owned son of First Defence started at 4/1 this morning but drifted out to an opening show on-course of 8's before drifting further to his starting price of 12/1. U S Navy Seal who was sent off the 6/5 favourite, attempted to make all for Aidan and Joseph O’Brien with the winner settling towards the back of the seven runner field.

He improved to take closer order turning for home but he needed to wait for a gap to appear before coming with his challenge.

The gap arrived over a furlong out and he quickly shot through it to lead, keeping on well from there to score by three parts of a length. Highland Reel (7’s to 6’s on-course), the supposed O’Brien second string, finished a good second under Seamie Heffernan, keeping on well inside the final furlong without matching the winner. Swordfight who was backed from 7/1 to 11/2 on-course, finished a disappointing sixth under Wayne Lordan for David Wachman while U S Navy Seal was even more disappointing finishing last.

Dermot Weld said afterwards: "I'm very pleased with him. He's obviously talented.

“We'll be in no hurry with him and I'll speak to Lord Grimthorpe about him and see where we go. I'd say a race like the Tyros here next month would be a logical step.

"He worked very nicely the other morning and I said he'd run here and thought he'd run respectably.

"Obviously there was a lot of confidence about other horses in the race. Our two-year-olds are coming along nicely. I've said before that it would be the second half of the year that our two-year-olds come together - and here they come."

Additional reporting by Gary Carson