Nelson conquers Leopardstown maiden for in-form Frankel

A great week for Frankel - in which he supplied two Pattern winners at Deauville on Tuesday and his first Australian winner in Merovee earlier on the same day - got better when Nelson surged clear in a hotly contested maiden at Leopardstown on Thursday.

Trained by Aidan O'Brien and ridden by his son Donnacha, Nelson extended his lead to three lengths at the finish from his Camelot stablemate Christopher Robin, the latter a 400,000gns Book 1 yearling purchase for MV Magnier, Mayfair Speculators and Peter and Ross Doyle at Tattersalls last year.

The same race has been won in the past by Free Eagle, who had his first foals this year, as well as this year's Gold Cup runner-up Order Of St George.

Nelson has also been entered for Group 2 Futurity Stakes at the Curragh on Sunday, and holds early entries to the Vincent O'Brien National Stakes and next year's Epsom Derby.

A Coolmore homebred, Nelson is a three-parts brother to last year's Chester Vase winner and Derby second US Army Ranger, and a half-brother to the Group 3 Munster Oaks scorer Words and to the stakes-winning pair Stubbs and Nevis.

That quartet are out of the 2008 Irish Oaks heroine Moonstone, who also ran second in the Oaks at Epsom, and who also has a three-year-old Fastnet Rock colt.

Moonstone is a half-sister to the Prix Saint-Alary winner Cerulean Sky and to Diner De Lune and L'Ancresse, both Listed winners.

View Thursday's results