King Of Earth reigns on handicap debut The William Haggas-trained King Of Earth justified 4/1 favouritism in the €100,000 Tulfarris Hotel And Golf Resort Maddenstown Handicap at the Curragh. A third winner on the card for his sire Kingman, the colt was never too far off the pace under Tom Marquand and just got to the front inside the final furlong. The Wolverhampton maiden winner needed to be driven right out to hold off the late surge of Summer Is Tomorrow by a neck with Liberation Date two lengths back in third. Marquand said, “He’s a lovely big horse, obviously very well related. “He’s learning his job. He had the cheekpieces on for the first time today and obviously it was a bit of a different task from whipping around Wolverhampton with a handful of horses. “He had to do it the hard way today. He’s a beautiful horse, he’s improving and just getting to grips with it." When asked if he could improve into a stakes performer at some stage he added, “Hopefully at some point, obviously he’s got a bit of a way to go. Winning that will knock him up a good bit, just for the race that it was. “He’s an improving horse and he’s got the physicality for it.” Quotes by Gary Carson
