Blackbeard heads to top of Coventry market after impressive Marble Hill win

Saturday: Curragh

Blackbeard is as short as 3-1 favourite for the Coventry Stakes after impressively making it three from three on his first attempt at six furlongs in the Group 3 Gain Marble Hill Stakes.

Ryan Moore made the running on the son of No Nay Never, with even-money favourite Tough Talk stalking him all the way, and had the race under control once he asked his mount to pick up more than a furlong out.

Blackbeard quickened up well to finish three and a half lengths clear of Tough Talk, looking as if he relished the extra furlong.

Trainer Aidan O'Brien said: "He's coming forward with every run. We weren't sure he would get the six and we ran him here to see if he could be a Coventry Stakes colt but he got it very well. He relaxed and quickened very well, which is what you would love about him."

He added: "He learned a lot from his run here last time, his first run on grass, and has come on an awful lot from that. We would have to think he's a Coventry colt after that."

Brad on the up

High-level sprinters can emerge at the age of five and the Hugo Palmer-trained Brad The Brief might be a case in point after surviving a stewards' inquiry to land the Group 2 Weatherbys Ireland Greenlands Stakes.

The Dutch Art gelding, who gave rider William Buick the first leg of a Group-race double completed by Native Trail, broke fast from the stalls but had to dig quite deep to hold off Mooneista by half a length. The winner drifted right and carried the runner-up across the track, but the stewards were satisfied he did not improve his placing in doing so.

Palmer's travelling head groom, Peter McCulloch, said: "He ran for the first time for us in a conditions race at Haydock a couple of weeks ago and has come on for that run.

"He was drawn out on the wing in stall two, but he jumped great and Will tacked across as best he could. He really lengthened when the other horse came to him. They've pulled clear of A Case Of You, who is a multiple Group 1 winner, so it's a pretty good performance."

He added: "If he carries on improving there could be a big one in him. It's fair to say he's better with some cut in the ground, so if we got a wet Saturday at Ascot he could quite easily turn up for the Platinum Jubilee."

Raise You strikes

Joseph O'Brien may have been disappointed with the rather flat display of Buckaroo in the Irish 2,000 Guineas but the improving Raise You put the smile back on his face with a decisive victory in the Listed Hanlon Concrete Orby Stakes.

Making his seasonal debut, the son of Lope De Vega was given a confident ride from off the pace by Shane Crosse and quickened clear inside the last furlong to beat stable companion Okita Soushi by three and a half lengths.

The six-year-old is part-owned by RTE Racing's Brian Gleeson, and indeed he was ridden by Gleeson's son John to victory in an amateur riders' race last season. He is a half-brother to the Gleeson family's A Dream To Share, so impressive in a Tipperary bumper on his debut on Thursday.

O'Brien said: "I thought Shane gave him a lovely, confident ride and I'm delighted to get a stakes win under his belt. I hoped he'd have achieved more by now but maybe the best is yet to come. Since we made the step up in trip and rode him patiently, he has really come good."

Results, replays and analysis

Saturday's big-race reports:

Native Trail seals Appleby's place in history books with emphatic Curragh strike

The Queen's Ascot team gets a major boost as King's Lynn seals Probert treble

'He's a super horse' - Ascot-bound El Caballo extends winning streak to six

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