Beaten favourite here a week ago behind Sunday's Birdcatcher contender, Captain Cullen, Rogue Element atoned for that defeat when justifying good support (9/4 this morning into 11/8) in division one of the Irish Stallion Farms European Breeders Fund Maiden (Colts & Geldings) at Dundalk. Johnny Murtagh was bringing up a double having earlier won on Balmont Mast
Well-backed outsider Friday Fever (as big as 20s this morning into 5/1) cut out the running but he couldn't hold off Rogue Element. He then had to deal with the challenge of Dermot Weld's outsider, Storm Lightning which he did, by half a length.
Ger Lyons trains Rogue Element for David Spratt and he said: "He ran last week here – he came out of that well so we decided to have a look.
"If there'd been a hot-pot in it we probably wouldn't have run.
"He's always been a good honest colt and very straight-forward.
"The owner is a good client.
"I don't think there is much left for the horse this year."
The 6.45 went off 5 minutes late – Arabela s refusal to load and withdrawal causing that delay.
To get the 7.10 off then, just twenty minutes later as part of the 25 minute interval experiment, was always going to be an insurmountable task. That 7.10 eventually got underway at 7.18.
