Tom Weekes
Sovereign's brother sheds maiden tag
Dawn Rising
© Photo Healy Racing
Dawn Rising justified 1/4 favouritism in winning the Irish Stallion Farms EBF Maiden for trainer Aidan O'Brien and jockey Wayne Lordan at Limerick today, making all despite briefly jinking in the home straight.
O'Brien's Championship-chasing jockey Seamie Heffernan was suspended for today's fixture and while everything was expected to go to plan for Lordan, the brother (by Galileo) to 2019 Irish Derby winner Sovereign briefly jinked left with a furlong and a half to race.
However Dawn Rising stayed on strongly to record a 12 lengths win over runner-up Yulong Pearlisland
Lordan, riding his seventh winner in four days, later said “he's a lovely, big horse who had a very good run at the Curragh the last day.
“He was very idle in front and I know we won by 12 lengths, but you never know when there's something coming from behind you and the way he was rolling around, I just wanted to keep the revs up.
“He won with plenty in hand at the end. He looked at the stalls in the straight - they were pulled in, and he copped them and ran out in the middle. He's a lovely, big staying horse.”