Davy Russell can't stop Tapenade tapping out at Kilbeggan and Cozy Sky joins Gordon Elliott Racing Club

Tapenade stepped up in trip to two mile three furlongs at Kilbeggan with Davy Russell on board. Our half brother of Might Bite has shown some promise over two mile hurdles but the thought was that he needed longer. He was also given to cheekpieces for this to see if that could bring any improvement.

Davy had him tucked away mid division of the sixteen runners. A slight gap developed to the leaders by the end of the first circuit but it was early enough in the race so that wasn't a worry yet. Tapenade led the chasing group. He was jumping and travelling well but he still wasn't making any ground on the leading group and as the race went on I was wondering if he was going to be capable of bridging the gap. If anything it was getting bigger and now there were serious concerns that he couldn't stick the pace. Davy got to work on him half way down the back straight but he never picked up. The leading group was pared down to just four as they turned for home and then there were two, Noel Meades Trappist Monk ridden by Sean Flanagan was chasing down JJ Slevin on Touch Of Oscar for Joseph O'Brien. Trappist Monk made a bad mistake at the last but recovered brilliantly to get up on the line.

No word yet from the yard about Tapenades run. It looked like Davy eased him off at the end. The going was good so that may have been an issue. As we head towards summer, that's all he's going to get.

Cozy Sky has joined us. She's a three year old filly by Animal Kingdom and Lets Get Cozzy who was already trained by Gordon. All her running has been on the flat with her best performance in a six furlong race at Naas last September when she finished fourth. Looking forward to seeing her run for us.