Belmont Avenue

Malaysian was a gutsy winner of the one-mile Median Auction Race at Cork on Wednesday, leading from flagfall and just holding on but Belmont Avenue ran a big race too to get to within a head of Jessica Harrington’s filly.

Joseph O’Brien’s colt was Drawn in stall 11, in a race in which the other three horses who, with him, filled the first four places were drawn, respectively, four, one and three, and Declan McDonogh did well to get him over onto the inside rail after they had gone a furlong and a half, just behind the front rank.

He travelled well into the home straight and, when Malaysian moved on and established a clear break on the field, he picked up well and got out after the leader. Four lengths behind passing the two-furlong marker, he came clear of the rest of the field from that point and he closed on the winner all the way to the line, just failing to get there, with the pair of them finishing nicely clear of the rest of the field.

It was a really encouraging performance by the Zoffany colt. This was his racecourse debut, but he had run well to finish third in a barrier trial at Dundalk nine days earlier, when he kept on well to finish third over seven furlongs, beaten a half a length by his stable companion Ulster Blackwater, who holds an entry in the Fillies’ Mile. Belmont Avenue is out of the Singspiel mare Single, a winner over a mile and beaten a head in a Group 3 race in France over a mile as a juvenile, and he saw out this one-mile trip well. He should improve for this experience.

Cork, 16^th September 2020