Poppa Poutine lost little in defeat when finishing second on his only start to date in the four-year-old maiden at Tallow in February. Given a patient ride by Simon Cavanagh, the bay gelding was prominent throughout and made very smooth progress through the field inside the final mile. The son of Sholokhov dug deep after jumping the penultimate fence and battled hard to get past the winner, but ultimately the finishing line came too soon, and he was beaten by just one-length. The four-year-old, who was a €40,000 store purchase gave a very good account of himself here and is out of a half-sister to four-time track winner Canada Street. He should have little difficulty adding to his winning family when opening up his account under rules.