Sultan of swing in Gibbstown

Meath handler Liam McAteer, who trains at Wilkinstown outside Navan, could be looking at an interesting couple of months on the road this summer with his three-year-old colt Croisultan which is now known as 'The Gibbstown Horse" and is owned by a local syndicate. Members of the syndicate include well-known Gaelic footballer Ciaran McLoughlin along with other locals Kevin Carr, Donal McAteer, Pat Fitzpatrick and Con McFadden. At Navan on Sunday, which had to survive an early-morning inspection due to the heavy rain, Criosultan justified favouritism (1/2) and had almost four lengths to spare at the post. Croisultan had the assistance of champion flat jockey Pat Smullen who was winning for the second time on the well-bred son of Refuse To Bend. Croisultan won twice as a juvenile and got off the mark over the minimum trip at Bellewstown last August. In 11 runs he has finished in the first four eight times and has collected almost €60,000 in prizemoney. Last month at Navan McAteer saw Croisultan finish second in a listed race to the promising Jumbajukiba from Jessie Harrington"s yard which will be bidding for the Greenlands Stakes at The Curragh on Saturday. Last year, Croisultan also showed some good form with a close-up finish in the Birdcatcher at Naas behind Jim Bolger"s Tomas An Tsioda and prior to that was second in a premier nursery at Dundalk. 'He"s in the Investec Dash at Epsom, but there"s a listed race the evening before over seven furlongs, the Surrey Stakes for three-year-olds and I think we"ll probably go there,' McAteer told the Meath Chronicle on Monday. 'Pat Smullen suggested that he would be better over a longer trip and we will have to take that on board. 'He"s a good horse and that"s not his ground as he is a big striding horse and is improving all the time, hopefully he will keep improving. 'I was very pleased with that win, he won going away and that"s not easy over six furlongs at Navan. 'We will have to see how he gets on at Epsom next month, but at least he should get better ground. 'We have some nice two-year-olds here for sale at the moment and they would definitely suit a syndicate, there might even be another one like Croisultan,' he added. While Navan survived the bad weather on Sunday, the popular Kilbeggan meeting on Saturday was postponed due to a waterlogged track.