Eden The Kid and Pay No Taxes dominated the first round of the RPGTV Scottish Derby at Shawfield on 
Saturday night.
Drawn red, the Scottish bred and trained Eden The Kid (Westmead Hawk-Cabra Jet, Aug 13), enjoyed an early buckle with local back marker Honour Jet (T6 10-1) before powering on from halfway. The evens favourite won by a black head more than seven lengths in 28.96. Blue Cafu (T2 4-1) was third. Ballymac Frano (T5 5-2), so impressive in trials and trialstakes, finished fifth.
Francie Murray’s Fair Taxes (Head Bound-Pride And Glory, Oct 12) was just one spot slower when taking the following heat. Running in the white jacket, the Shelbourne Gold Cup third (4-6f) was made to work for his victory after finding Diego Flight (T1 7-2) and Hot Pipe (T5 10-1) on either side going to the bend. It took to the third bend for the Irish runner to show his superiority and he surprisingly ran away from the six-bend star Flight for a three and a half length win with a further two and a half back to third.
Irish Derby winner Ballymac Matt (Tyrur Big Mike-Ballymac Scarlet, Jul 13) overcame trouble and came from seven lengths off the leader to win, though his performance will have given some concern to connections. Outrun to the first bend, the white jacketed 1-3f then ran off and found himself mid division some seven lengths behind leader Broadstrand Cain (T6 7-1). Kelly Macari’s black and white showed decent pace along the backstraight but was again less than fluent around the last two. He eventually took a route around the outside to get home by a length and three quarters in an understandably average 29.62. Two Steps Back (T4 20-1) finished third, with Jaytee Valencia (T1) failing to qualify.
The night’s biggest shock was the elimination of another Irish Derby finalist, the Matthews’ family’s Cable Bay (T1 4-5f) in the fourth heat. Moderately away, impeded to the bend and then caught behind the ruck, he was never a contender. The race was instead won by the top juvenile of 2014 Droopys Buick (Yeah Man-Droopys Hilda, Nov 13). Showing great battling qualities from trap four to the first bend, Jimmy Wright’s 5-2 chance clocked 29.29 when beating Shaneboy Freddie (T3 4-1) by five. Myway Mars (T5) was a distant third.
The Matthews kennel had some consolation when Cable’s brother Leave At Dawn (Foleys Folley-Toms Delight, Jan 13) landed heat five. In a race where only two runners seriously featured in the betting, the evens favourite was impressive from trap two. Despite leaving several lengths on the track due to some wayward bend running, the dog with the night’s fastest sectional (3.64) comfortably accounted for second favourite Clonkeen Stanley (T1 7-4) in an impressive 29.21. Fifo (T4) was third, the distances one and three quarters and three and three quarters.
The final heat saw the elimination of favourite Kneejerkreaction (T5 1-1f). The race went to Paul Hennessy’s Mucho Macho Man (Razldazl Jayfkay-Castlehill Alex, May 13). The white jacketed 6-4 chance never put a foot wrong throughout. After leading up in 3.71, he held off Honour And Glory (T1 10-1) and No But (T2 5-1) by six and a length and a half in 29.29.
