Southwell maiden report: Southwell first for trainer Simon Crisford

First Selection made an impressive debut for Simon Crisford in the totepool Irish Stallion Farms EBF Median Auction Maiden Stakes at Southwell.

The former Godolphin racing manager struck gold with his very first runner as a trainer in Britain when Mutawathea won at Kempton earlier this month and First Selection, a juvenile son of Diktat, was the 6/5 favourite for his introduction in the hands of Silvestre de Sousa.

After tracking fellow newcomer Mistymoistymorning early on, First Selection took over from the halfway stage of the five-furlong contest and although Mark Johnston's charge refused to go away, the Crisford runner was always doing enough to score two and a half lengths.

Crisford said: "Silvestre seems to think six might be better for him, but he showed plenty of toe today.

"We'll see where we go, but the idea of coming to this median auction was that he can slot into another race and hopefully have another chance."

Of the campaign ahead for his yard, Crisford told At The Races: "We've got 45 horses, so a full stable and hopefully some nice ones. We're really looking forward to it.

"We've got 10 four-year-olds and 80 per cent of them are two-year-olds. Most of them are backward ones, so I don't really expect the stable to click into top gear until mid-summer onwards."