Patience pays off as reappearing Rogue Invader scores for in-form trainer Alice Haynes

Back-to-form Alice Haynes sent out her fifth winner in the past nine days when Rogue Invader returned from nine months off to land the 7½f maiden.

"The horses are coming to themselves," the Newmarket trainer said. "They hadn't been on grass much, maybe they'd been a piece of work too short but it's a long season.

"Things are going well now and we had four winners last week."

Haynes, whose stable star Cairo is set to run in either the Glencairn Stakes at Leopardstown or the Diomed at Epsom next week, had feared the worst when Rogue Invader came under pressure from Rossa Ryan a furlong out.

"I thought we might be lacking a bit of fitness but he saw it out well," she said. "He picked up a little niggle at the end of last year so we popped him away for the winter. Being patient has paid off with him.

"He's a smart horse. We thought a lot of him last year. He's still immature and Rossa said we won't see the best of him until next year."

Head's up

The two-year-old claimer was profitable for Mick and David Easterby. Their Head For Freedom was backed from a morning 6-1 into 9-4 favourite before scoring by half a length under Jo Mason – and the joint-trainers kept him as there was no claim for the winner.

David Easterby said: "He was probably the best bred horse in the race, as his dam was rated over 100, and the bit of cut in the ground helped him.

"But he has been a handful and if it wasn't for [equine behaviourist] Craig Witheford, we would never have got him to the race. He came to the yard twice and his techniques were second to none."

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