Wilshire Boulevard opens account at third attempt

Narrowly denied over course and distance last Saturday, the Aidan O’Brien-trained Wilshire Boulevard opened his account at the third attempt when justifying odds-on favouritism in the Irish Stallion Farms Median Auction 2-Y-0 Maiden in Navan last night.

The hooded son of Holy Roman Emperor tracked the leaders before coming through strongly to get the better of market rival Candy Apples, prompting winning rider Joseph O’Brien to comment: “He has loads of pace and was entitled to win on his run here last week. He’ll be more effective on better ground.”

Joseph completed a double on a spare ride for in-form trainer Willie McCreery, when Glen Gunne finished strongly and got up close home to land the www.navangolfclub.ie Handicap. The champion-jockey was deputising for Rory Cleary, shaken and stood down for six days following a fall at Leopardstown on Thursday.

Cleary’s absence also provided Danny Grant with a winner as he took over on the Joanna Morgan-trained 20/1 shot Silldora, which got up late to foil veteran Patrickswell in the Navan Members Handicap.

The other sprint handicap, the Follow Navan On Facebook Handicap produced a tremendous finish and a four-horse blanket-finish, in which the judge couldn’t split the Ger Lyons’ Joe Eile (Colin Keane) and the Adrian McGuinness-trained Bubbly Bellini (Ian Brennan). The two dead-heaters, which are likely to clash again in the valuable Paddy Power Sprint at the Curragh on Derby weekend, had a short-head to spare over Curly Wee with Straits Of Zanzibar only a nose away fourth.

Local trainer Matthew Smith plans a return to hurdling at Bellewstown for Rawnaq following the 7/4 favourite’s narrow victory over Leah Claire in the apprentice handicap.

Most impressive winner of the evening was the John Oxx-trained Qewy, which justified 6/4 favouritism in the maiden.