Tom Mullins' Agatino evidently strengthened up over the winner as he forged home in the mile maiden for three-year-olds at Dundalk.

The Buratino gelding made steady headway and finished with a real flourish once he got his head in front in the final furlong.

He soon scooted clear for Ben Coen and the pair had plenty in hand from a staying-on newcomer Hibernia Oppositus There was a length and a half between the 9/1 winner and the 9/4 favourite (from 15/2 in the morning). Gorgeous Star (7/2) dropped to third.

Mullins said: "We thought a bit of him last year but he just wasn't strong enough.

“He's strong enough now this year and he's done what we expected him to do last year. It's great to do that today.

“He'll maybe stay a bit further. He'll go on anything, I'd say, and we'll see what the handicapper does now, maybe that will decide our route.

“It looked like a nice maiden. When I was looking through it, I felt that all the fancied ones might not get the trip and maybe they didn't.

“Hopefully he'll go forward from here and we'll see what mark he gets.”

Additional reporting by Gary Carson