Racing: Successful comeback for Refuse To Bend

Refuse To Bend, the winner of the 2,000 Guineas but unplaced when favourite in the Derby, made a smoothly impressive return to action at Leopardstown yesterday, dropping back to a mile to take the Group Three Desmond Stakes.

Refuse To Bend, the winner of the 2,000 Guineas but unplaced when favourite in the Derby, made a smoothly impressive return to action at Leopardstown yesterday, dropping back to a mile to take the Group Three Desmond Stakes.

Dermot Weld's charge cruised home by three lengths and now has either the Prix du Moulin or the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes on his agenda before a tilt at the Breeders' Cup Mile.

Clive Brittain's Warrsan found the last two winners of the German Derby too good in Cologne's Group One feature yesterday, beaten four lengths by Dai Jin and his Andreas Schutz stablemate Next Desert. The three-year-old winner now heads for the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe.

The Philip Mitchell-trained Joe Bear, stepping up from handicap company, finished second to Kicken Kris in the Grade One Secretariat Stakes at Arlington on Saturday night.

Johnny Murtagh, due to partner favourite Kalaman in tomorrow's International Stakes at York, will miss the three-day meeting because of a recurrence of a back injury incurred in a fall at Royal Ascot.