Sea provides Weld with 4,000th win

Dermot Weld recorded his 4,000th winner as the well-backed Sea Swift took the last at Naas, the Coral.ie EBF Fillies Maiden.

Successful earlier with Discipline Weld was completing a double on the evening along with stable jockey Pat Smullen.

Seventh of sixteen on her debut at Leopardstown in April, Sea Swift was available at 7/1 last night, but that price was quickly snapped up, and she soon went as short as 3's.

Having opened at 5/2 on-course, the Calumet Farm owned bay was again well-backed, and went off the 15/8 favourite.

Settled behind the leaders, she came with her challenge on the outer from the two furlong pole and hit the front with over a furlong to race, keeping on well under pressure from there, going on to score by a length and a quarter. Nuclear Option (66/1) ran a fine race to finish second under Billy Lee for John Grogan, while Not A Whisper (20/1) was two and a quarter lengths back in third under Leigh Roche for Aidan Howard.

Dermot Weld said afterwards: "I’ve been very fortunate to have had some great riders over the years like Wally Swinburn, Johnny Roe, Michael Kinane and Pat Smullen, and Brendan Sheridan in National Hunt.

"My first day with a licence at Baldoyle in 1972 I had a double with Spanner and I rode Chevy Chase in the bumper.

"I've had a wonderful team of staff through the years, and a lot of hard work has gone in over that time. For many years there was only racing three days a week on Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday and sometimes only two days a week. They were six race cards, and I was lucky enough to have five winners on a day a number of times.

"It's nice to do it with a home bred filly of my late mothers. We will look for some black type later in the year with her."

Additional reporting by Alan Magee