The Mick Mulvany trained Early Call gained a long overdue first success at Down Royal today as the gelding landed the Irish EBF Supporting ICW Maiden at the 18th attempt.

Ridden by Gary Carroll, the son of Tough As Nails showed plenty speed when scoring by two and a half lengths from Freiheit

Mulvany later said "we were a bit disappointed with that horse all year because if you had asked any of the lads in the yard early on in the year what horse they would have picked, they would have picked him.

"I thought he ran well in the Curragh last week when he needed the run.

"Whatever it was, his form kind of tailed off a little. He was second three times and we were starting to wonder was he genuine and that's why we stuck the cheekpieces on and it seems to have worked for him.

"Hopefully it is onwards and upwards but we don't know where we go now because he's a real five-furlong horse.”

Quotes from Michael Graham