Well-bred Turnberry Isle gains compensation

Turnberry Isle just denied at Leopardstown last weekend, made no mistake when justifying odds-on favouritism on his third start in the Irish Stallion Farms EBF Maiden at Naas.

The Galileo colt is certainly bred for the job being out of the Group 1 winner Rosdhu Queen, and was up with the pace throughout under Seamie Heffernan.

The 9/10 favourite disputed the running with Gentile Bellini but got the better of his Ballydoyle stable-companion inside the final quarter mile, and was just pushed out to beat that rival by two lengths. Hazran caught the eye when staying on nicely from off the pace on debut to take third a further two and a half lengths adrift.

Heffernan said, “I was always comfortable and he’s a horse I like. Sometimes you can win a maiden and that’s as good as they are but I’d say he has a fair bit to give.”

A stalls malfunction led to a false start after the five drawn on the outside where the only stalls to open while the remainder (stalls 1 to 14) remained closed.

The quintet didn’t go too far and a fair start at the second attempt soon took place.