O’Callaghan’s Red Evolution wins Dundalk’s opener
Red Evolution and Jamie Powell
© Photo Healy Racing
Red Evolution (5/4f) registered his first success at the sixth attempt today as the Michael O’Callaghan-trained gelding readily landed Dundalk’s opening View Restaurant At Dundalk Stadium Maiden, under jockey Jamie Powell.
The son of Mehmas finished third in a Curragh maiden behind subsequent Breeders Cup Juvenile winner Henri Matisse last May and while he failed to build on some initial promise, today scored by 2.75 lengths from Aleppo Pepper which showed promise.
O'Callaghan said "I’m delighted with him and he is a horse that has showed us plenty of potential. He had a lovely run first time out and he has run in some lovely races. In the latter half of the year we gelded him and that has really made a difference: it has just removed some distractions.
"It was lovely in the last 150 yards just to see him knuckle down and pull away from them. Jamie said he took plenty of pulling up and said he feels like a horse that grown up. He seems one that will be competitive over five and six furlongs going forward.
"Today was the main plan to break his maiden tag and to see where we go from here.
"He's a nice-moving horse, he wouldn't be a soft-ground horse. We'll see what is up here between now and the start of the season. We might wait for some nice ground."
Quotes from Michael Graham