TRAINED by Aidan O’Brien, The Irish Rover cost 150,000gns as a yearling and he was soon in the winners’ circle as a two-year-old, scoring over six furlongs at Newbury in mid-May, after collecting place money from two earlier starts.

That earned him a trip to Royal Ascot, where he was out of the money behind Calyx and Advertise in a huge field of 23 for the Group 2 Coventry Stakes. However, he showed his class at the Curragh in August when he was a close third in the Group 1 Phoenix Stakes, making the running and beaten only half a length and the same by Advertise and So Perfect, before running fourth at York in the Group 2 Gimcrack Stakes.