Eighteenth Smiles gets off the mark An exciting finish opened proceedings as Eighteenth Smiles prevailed by a short head in the Irish EBF Auction Series Maiden at Cork over a mile. Joseph O'Brien's charge has had six previous runs, and the step up to a mile has seemed to bring further improvement on his last two starts. Declan McDonagh's mount was slowly into stride and was positioned toward the rear of mid-division in the early stages before coming under pressure three furlongs from home. A big drifter in the market beforehand (6/1—14/1), the Annus Mirabilis Syndicate's colt stayed on well to lead inside the final 100 yards and held off the fast-finishing Roy Bean (13/2) to score. Winsburg (4/1) was a further three-quarters of a length back in third. O'Brien's race planner Kevin Blake said: "He probably deserved that. He was a bit slow to get going, in general, a slow learner. He didn't help himself missing the kick obviously but Declan was very strong on him. "Hopefully he can progress now. He stays well and handles the ground well. We'll go for something similar, nothing too flash. It's great to get him off the mark for the Annus Mirabilis guys, nice for the stallion. "He just put himself on the back foot, and he did the same thing in Roscommon. He had a lot of running to do turning in but in fairness to him he put his head down and tried all the way to the line. "Hopefully he can go on now and win another one. He'll stay as far as he can get this year." Additional reporting by Gary Carson.
