Friendship got off the mark on the fifth time of asking as he eased to victory in the Irish Stallion Farms EBF 2yo Maiden.

Ridden by Joseph O’Brien, and trained by his father Aidan, the white-faced son of Galileo broke well and made all, asserting over a furlong out, and staying on strongly from there to score easily by six lengths. Bogardus put in a satisfactory effort on his debut to take second at 16/1 under Declan McDonogh for Patrick Prendergast, while another newcomer, Sinndar Desert (16/1), was four and a quarter lengths back in third under Chris Hayes for Paul Deegan.

The winner, who holds a whole host of big race entries, was sent off the 3/10 favourite, with his price shortening considerable this morning when Corona Borealis was taken out.

Joseph O’Brien said afterwards: "Fast ground is his thing and he bounced off of it this evening. The ground was plenty slow in Galway for him.

"He won as he was entitled to do and we thought he would have won his maiden by now.”

O’Brien went on to talk about War Command saying: “His last bit of work is tomorrow morning and then we will decide about Sunday (the Phoenix Stakes).”

Additional reporting by Michael Graham