Lingfield joy for O'Shea

Tad O’Shea, a 22-year-old from Cork, has made a flying start to his riding career in Britain and partnered his third winner since arriving from Ireland when steering Heywood to victory in the Hilary Gray Birthday Celebration Nursery at Lingfield.

The Mick Channon-trained colt, a 7-2 shot, came up the stands rails to just deny Miss Saafend Plaza by a neck, with Veenwouden three-quarters of a length back in third.

But there was a sad story attached to Blue Madeira, who was withdrawn from the race. The gelding suffered an injury in his stable box before the race and broke his jaw.

Trained by Linda Stubbs, his owners recently turned down £50,000 for him and he will now be out of action for about a year.