Dakota Blue lands maiden success under Coen The Johnny Murtagh trained Dakota Blue stepped up on some promising juvenile efforts when making a winning reappearance in the Irish Stallion Farms EBF 3Y0 Spring Series Median Auction Maiden at Navan. Runner-up on two of his three starts last term, the son of Sioux Nation arguably ran his best race when fourth in a warm Curragh maiden behind The Lion In Winter. Making his first start at three, the Ben Coen partnered gelding travelled nicely just off the pace as Nobler led Vorfreude. The latter went on early in the straight but Coen covered the move, going third on the outside. Pushed along to lead over a furlong out, the eventual winner stayed on strongly to score by one-and-three-quarter lengths. Johnny Murtagh said: "He was rated 90 coming into a race like that. He had been going well and Ben was happy with his last piece of work. "Had a bit of a blow, so hopefully he will improve from that. "His form was pretty good, the maidens he ran in were good. The Curragh was a good one and even the last day when he was second in Dundalk, I thought he might win that race, but it looked like a smart horse won that day. "A mile and a-quarter is good for him, he likes fast ground - something to look forward to. He might even get a mile and a-half. "Today was a big day. We wanted to get the day out of the way and it is always nice to win their maiden. Nice pot." Additional reporting by Michael Graham.
