No worries for Celtic fans in the first

Fitted with a tongue-tie and dropping to five furlongs for the first time, Celtic Beauty (Evens fav) was a fluent winner of the Irish Stallion Farms EBF Maiden at Naas.

Billy Lee ’s mount was always travelling well as she tracked the leaders, and readily quickened clear inside the final furlong to beat American Lady (7/1) by two and-a-half lengths with the same distance back to True Motion (20/1) in third.

The winner had disappointed at Newmarket’s July meeting, but here she was right back to the sort of form shown when second of twenty-five in the Group 3 Albany Stakes at Royal Ascot.

The winning trainer Ken Condon remarked afterwards: “It’s nice to get the maiden win with her. She disappointed at Newmarket but she wouldn’t be the first horse to go there and not take to the track. We were putting it down to that.

“Billy said she travelled through the race really nicely and when she does get to the front she doesn’t kill herself.

“Hopefully she will go to the Lowther Stakes next at York. They go very quick normally and she seems to travel very easily through her races. She’s entitled to go there.”

Additional reporting by Alan Magee