Moyglare Stud Stakes (Group 1)

SOME four years after the race provided Donnacha O’Brien with his first top-level success as a rider, it yielded his initial Group 1 victory as a trainer on home soil as the dependable Shale answered every question asked of her and more.

From the moment the juvenile fillies’ division started to take shape, Shale and Pretty Gorgeous looked the two outstanding Irish fillies of their generation and, just as they did in the Silver Flash and the Debutante, they dominated once more. Over this course and distance last month Pretty Gorgeous held the call over Shale but the latter exacted her revenge in likeable fashion.

The 9/2 chance wasn’t going as well as some of her rivals after halfway but passing the junction of the tracks it was clear that Ryan Moore was getting a good tune out of his mount.

A determined Shale got herself into the lead with over a furlong to run and she went to the line in fine style to hold off Pretty Gorgeous, trained by O’Brien’s brother Joseph, by three-quarters of a length and Oodnadatta was one and three-quarters of a length back in third.

“She was nearly the first one off the bridle and I thought at halfway she was going nowhere but she kept finding for Ryan,” reflected O’Brien who won this race on Intricately for his brother and followed up on Happily a year later.

“I didn’t come here confident that we would turn the tables on Pretty Gorgeous but the ground today was probably slightly more in our favour. They are two top-class fillies.

“I only spoke to Ryan briefly afterwards and he said the Fillies’ Mile could be the race for her so it will be that or the Prix Marcel Boussac. For next year she’s a filly with the speed for a mile and but being by Galileo she could easily get a mile and a half so we’ll see,” added O’Brien.