Aidan O’Brien’s classy colt back to winning ways.

Dropping back to seven furlongs for the first time since making a winning debut over course and distance as a two-year-old, Diego Velazquez ran out a gutsy winner of the Group 2 Romanised Minstrel Stakes at the Curragh.

Aidan O'Brien's four-year-old son of Frankel, who was winning for the fifth time in his ten-start career, was forced to pull out all the stops under a strong front-running Ryan Moore ride to get the better of East Hampton by a neck.

Mutasarref finished a length and a half back in third.

The winner was having just his second start of the season, having been withdrawn from the stalls during his intended reappearance in the Amethyst Stakes before struggling in the Group 1 Queen Anne Stakes at Royal Ascot.

"We're delighted," said O'Brien on Racing TV. "Obviously, up to now it has been a bit of a mess this year. We went to Leopardstown to give him a run for Ascot, and it went wrong, he got upset in the stalls and had to be withdrawn. Then because of that, I wasn't confident enough to tell Ryan (Moore) to ride him forward in the Queen Anne and then they hacked for the first half of the race. It was over straight away after a couple of furlongs."

On future plans, a step back up in trip looks on the cards for Diego Velazquez, with O'Brien pinpointing the Group 1 Sussex Stakes or Prix Jacques le Marois as possible targets.

He added: "We've had it in our heads that he could be a Sussex or Jacques le Marois horse, so when everything went wrong, we needed to get him back on track somewhere.

"The seven furlongs was maybe a little bit tight for him, but he was in a good place.

"It was great to get him back winning. Ryan (Moore) gave him a very good ride, he's very genuine. He'll be very comfortable going back up to a mile, nine and ten furlongs."