Meld goes to Moonlight under Manning

Moonlight Magic battled gamely to land the feature at Leopardstown this evening, the Group 3 ICON Meld Stakes.

Without a win since May of last year, the Jim Bolger trained Cape Cross colt was last seen finishing third to Johannes Vermeer in the International Stakes at the Curragh on July 2nd.

Sent off at 5/1 this evening, the four-year-old bay was settled in second by Kevin Manning.

He was pushed along to challenge the front-running Deauville from the two furlong pole, and he battled on dourly inside the final furlong, edging to the front inside the final 50 yards, prevailing by a head.

Deauville, who was sent off the 4/5 favourite, had to settle for second under Donnacha O'Brien for his father Aidan, while the other three runners never got into contention.

Jim Bolger said afterwards: "He was in really good form coming into tonight.

"I was telling myself that if he didn't win this evening I can't win with him. We've had a good run over the last few weeks and that makes all the difference.

"He's run good races at lots of places and the only bad one was in the Derby. He obviously didn't handle Epsom and might not have been at the top of his game at that time.

"He's getting back there and hopefully we can bag a better one before the year is out."

When asked if he could run in the Irish Champion Stakes, Bolger added: "He's good enough to take part and ran well in it last year. He is a better horse this year than last year.

"He dug deep tonight and doesn't really mind the ground, he goes on any ground. The Royal Whip could be a possible for him."

Additional reporting by Gary Carson