EVERYTHING just fell right for Newtown Anner Stud Farm’s game mare Laganore in last Saturday’s Denny Cordell Lavarack & Lanwades Stud Fillies Stakes at Gowran Park where she made up for missing her engagement in the Matron Stakes due to a stone bruise by taking the spoils in this Group 3 contest under a confident ride from Colin Keane.
Runner-up in the same race last year, the five-year-old has been campaigned at the highest level by Tony Martin and hasn’t run a bad race all season. Sent off the 7/2 joint-favourite with Dabulena, subsequently reported to have lost a near fore shoe, Laganore was held up by Keane at the rear of the field.
Ranging up alongside I’m So Fancy outside the furlong-pole, she had her race won in the final 50 yards and was two lengths too good for her rival at the line. Her jockey reported: “For the first half I was probably a bit further back than I wanted to be, but you only have one go with her and, from the top of the hill, I was happy.”
Her trainer added: “She’s a right good mare, but she just didn’t get the rub of the green earlier on in the year. She’s been promising to do that for an age and we’ve been waiting all year for that. She loves that ground and today was the important one. I doubt very much whether she’ll stay in training, but it was important to get that one out of the way.”
Keane went on to double up aboard Erratic Path, from the Ger Lyons yard, in the three-year-old and upwards maiden when running out a convincing seven-length winner from market leader Spring Garden. The trainer’s brother Shane commented: “We’ve always liked this horse and the only mistake was stepping him up in trip too quickly at Killarney. Dropping him back in trip has done the trick.
“He’s a brother to Elusive Heights, out of a Group 3 mare that we trained, and he’s only going to get better with strength and time. He acted on the ground and we’ll see what’s left for him. He has a future at the other game, as well.”
Kevin Prendergast’s dual runner-up Moghamarah made it third time lucky in the Irish Stallion Farms EBF Fillies Maiden when recording an impressive six and a half-length success in the colours of Hamdan Al Maktoum.
Well-supported in the market from 9/4 into 7/4 favourite, the Dawn Approach filly was sent to the front by Chris Hayes at the quarter-mile-pole and she opened up from there to beat Raynama by a wide margin.
Prendergast was on hand to comment: “She was a bit unlucky in Galway where she was drawn very wide and she got knocked about a bit, but she won well. I’ll see what the boss has to say, but I don’t think I’ll run her anymore this season. I’ll probably run her in the Guineas Trial at Leopardstown – it’ll keep us alive for another year!”
Shane Foley was seen to good effect when registering a brace of potentially exciting winners for Jessica Harrington, kicking off with The King who scooped the honours in the Irish Stallion Farms EBF Maiden in taking fashion.
Owned by American Nick Brady’s Mill House LLC, the 7/2 chance stepped up on his Curragh debut to take it up in the final 250 yards and win easily by three and a quarter lengths at the expense of Imaging, with the favourite Christopher Robin a further two lengths adrift in third.
The Mastercraftsman colt’s trainer remarked: “He was very green and Shane said he got into a place he didn’t want to be in because they went very steady but, when he picked up, he quickened up like a good horse.
“He’s in the Beresford Stakes and has good entries in the Irish 2,000 Guineas and the Derby [at Epsom] and he’s going to be a nice staying horse. We’ll wait and see, but he did that really well and we’ve always thought he was a nice horse.”
Stable-companion Gymkhana gave the same trainer and jockey duo a quick follow-up in the Gowran Park Race. Setting sail for home at the furlong pole, the 8/1 winner was three-quarters of a length too strong for the hot-pot Sorelle Delle Rose at the finish on his first outing for his new stable.
“He came to me from Ger (Lyons) after being gelded and having a wind operation and I just trained him away,” said Harrington of her new recruit, owned in partnership by Pat Cassidy and his sister Nora Byrne.
“I had no idea how fit he was and Shane said he got there way too soon. He was only idling in front, but he loves that soft ground and I might go back to a listed race on that ground.”
Pat Smullen pegged back Colin Keane’s lead in the flat jockeys’ title race by one thanks to Sleepy Head’s one and a quarter-length success in the 45-65 Handicap, which additionally credited her trainer Pat Flynn with his 751st career win. The favourite, Harvey Specter, had to settle for fourth.
“She was just a bit messy at the start and Pat said she was a bit iffy in the stalls, but we’ve done a lot of work with her at home and she appreciates ‘genteel handling,” said Flynn of his 8/1 winner. “It’s just a case of getting her relaxed and that will be a great tonic for her Wexford owner Bill Foley. She’ll go on grass next and then she’ll go to Dundalk.”
Adrian Keatley and up and coming 18-year-old talent Danny Sheehy combined for success with 10/1 shot Lucky Mistake, who survived an objection by the rider of the second horse, the favourite Roibeard, in the apprentice handicap on the grounds that the winner had dragged his mount across the track, thereby costing him the race by the official distance of half a length.
This was quickly over-ruled and Keatley, who has care of Lucky Mistake for English-based Andrew Davin, who had a share in Jet Setting but was celebrating his first win in his own colours, said: “I only got him from France a couple of months ago and got a bit of grub into him and got him looking well.
“He’s a typical Fast Company and loves that ground. Richard Fahey had him as a two-year-old and his best form was on good to soft ground. He’s grand and fresh in himself at the moment and he’s in again at Galway on Tuesday.”
In the Corinthian Challenge Charity Races Series, the Gordon Elliott-trained 2/1 joint favourite Water Sprite gave Killian McCarthy, husband of the racecourse judge Jennifer Walsh, his first winner when outstaying the other joint-favourite, Nearly Famous, by four and a quarter lengths.
One-day ban
APPRENTICE Simon Davis was given a one-day ban for careless riding in the first race.
ACTING STEWARDS
N.P. Lambert, N.B. Wachman, L. McFerran, A. Byrne, P.D. Matthews.
HORSE TO FOLLOW
THE KING (J. Harrington): Well regarded, he has entries to match and is evidently going from strength to strength. An exciting prospect.