BECKFORD, one of the highest-rated two-year-olds in Ireland last season, was back with a bang on Saturday night, as he made a winning debut for his new trainer, Brendan Walsh, at Churchill Downs. The colt is still owned by Maurice Regan’s Newtown Anner Stud Farm, for whom he won the Group 2 Railway Stakes and was twice placed at the highest level over six and seven furlongs, under the care of Gordon Elliott.

Tackling the minimum distance for the first time in the William Walker Stakes, the bay was at the back of the field entering the straight but showed an impressive turn of foot to streak past his rivals, winning by three parts of a length.

Winning jockey, Julien Leparoux, was full of praise for his mount, saying, “He's a very fast horse. I think he is going to have a very bright future ahead of him.” Brendan Walsh added, “We thought he was a special horse when we first got him.” Walsh later divulged that a trip to Royal Ascot is the plan.

The Royal meeting is not a bad destination for a horse that cost €55,000 as a yearling- the price Elliott and Aidan ‘Mouse’ O’Ryan gave at the Goffs Orby Sale.