Ballydoyle lesser-lights on the scoresheet

ON a low-key, pre-Royal Ascot weekend, Aidan O’Brien and Johnny Murtagh doubled-up with two of Ballydoyle’s lesser-lights, Emperor Hadrian and Ferdinand Magellan, at Navan last night.

Blinkered for the first time, Emperor Hadrian, from the first crop of Holy Roman Emperor and having his fourth start, came through strongly inside the final furlong to master Mr Man in The Moon by two lengths in the six-furlong Irish Stallion Farms 2-Y-0 Maiden.

Murtagh commented: “He travelled well in the blinkers and did it nicely in the end. It’s good to win with him.”