Ol' Man River keeps rollin' along

Aidan O’Brien’s Ol’ Man River made a winning start to his career as he impressively took the mile maiden for two-year-olds at the Curragh.

The headon footage revealed how easily Joseph O’Brien was travelling on Ol’ Man River in mid-division with a quarter of a mile to go. All the other jockeys were seen at work on their mounts.

The son of Montjeu travelled powerfully into contention in the final furlong and quickened away in the last 200 yards to win by three parts of a length at 11/10. He had been easy to back this morning drifting out from an initial 4/5.

Kevin Prendergast’s Aared stayed on nicely to close in second on the eased down winner. He was returned at 20/1. Mick Halford’s Vilman (22/1) occupied third place.

“You'd have to be delighted with that first time. He's never been away and this was his first day on the track,” Aidan O'Brien said.

“It looked a good solid race and he travelled very strongly. He had to get tired going that gallop first time, but he cruised into the lead. We'll take our time with him and won't be in any panic. We'd rather go gentle and see what's going to happen.

“The good thing about him is he's a strong traveller and seems to have plenty of pace. Looking at today, he wouldn't mind going back to seven furlongs. He was working with plenty of class and showing plenty of pace at home. You are always afraid first time what will happen and he was drawn in the car-park.

“If we had a preference we'd rather go faster than softer ground wise.”

Ol’ Man River fetched 2,850,000 euro at Goffs in October. He holds Group One and Group 2 entries this season. Boylesports cut him from 25/1 to 16/1 for next year’s Derby.

Additional reporting by Gary Carson