Taipan and Shane Foley (right) win from Team Of Firsts© Photo Healy Racing
We saw a second promising juvenile debut performance on the card when Taipan (7/1) took the Irish Stallion Farms EBF Maiden over a mile.
The Irish 2,000 Guineas and Epsom Derby entrant made good progress towards the near side from two furlongs out before coming through to collar Team Of Firsts (15/8 jt fav) inside the final furlong and win by half a length. Rave N Contagion (18/1) was third with the other 15/8 joint favourite King Of The Castle back in fifth.
The Jessica Harrington-trained winner, by Frankel, cost E500,000 at Arqana’s Deauville Yearling Sales and his half-brother Brad The Brief was a Group 3 winner at Chantilly for Tom Dascombe just yesterday.
Foley, now on 92 winners for the season but still six behind Colin Keane as the title race enters its last week, said: “He’s a gorgeous, big, laidback horse that only goes through the motions at home.
“We’ve given him all the time in the world and I wasn’t sure if today was going to be the day. It was just to get him out really.
“He was never travelling at any stage but that’s him. He’s a bit like that at home but he’s going to be a lovely staying horse for next year.”
The French-bred winner shares his name with the Irish-bred 1992-foaled Taipan, a very useful middle-distance performer for John Dunlop and subsequently a National Hunt stallion.
Additional reporting by Alan Magee
