Well-backed Mulligatawny gets off the mark The well-backed Mulligatawny justified odds-on favouritism as he took the Cassidy's XL Carrickmacross Maiden under Fran Berry for Jessica Harrington and owners Mill House LLC. Having finished a good fourth to Awtaad on his debut at Leopardstown in October, the son of Lope De Vega opened at 13/8 last night. That price was quickly gone this morning and he opened on-course at 8/11 before going off the 4/6 market leader. Sent straight to the front by Berry he was soon headed and settled in second. He travelled strongly to lead under two furlongs out and was ridden from over a furlong from home, keeping on well from there to score by two lengths. Zilbiyr (12's last night and from 7's to 6's on-course) kept on well to take second under Gary Carroll for Johnny Feane, while First Class Ticket (8/1) was three parts of a length back in third under Seamie Heffernan for John Murphy. Whisky Zulu was a further length and a half back in fourth and the first four were seven lengths clear of the remainder. Jessica Harrington said afterwards: "I'm delighted. He had a very good run at Leopardstown at the backend of last year. "He had done well over the winter so we thought we'd start off up here. The great thing is that he goes a mile. We weren't sure if he would last year but he got it well. "Let's hope he keeps going in the right direction and I'd imagine we'll look at a Guineas trial. "I'd say he wouldn't want extremes of ground. He probably wouldn't go on good to firm or soft to heavy but anything in between." The winner, who cost 135,000 guineas as a yearling, holds an entry in the 2000 Guineas at the Curragh in May. Additional reporting by Gary Carson
