Chicquita conquers the Darley Irish Oaks – Horseracing News
Chicquita delivered an outstanding performance in the Darley Irish Oaks (Group 1) at Curragh in Ireland, leaving her opponents in a state of shock.
The Irish filly is not considered to be a top class performer, as she does not run smoothly like most of her rivals. Despite that, she proved her critics wrong after displaying a strong show in the class-1 competition, which had
attracted some of the best challengers in the business.
The three-year-old filly entered the contest with a starting price of 9 to 2, which suggested that the bookies had some faith in her abilities. However, the punters thought that she might not be able to finish on top of the table,
thus did not gamble the maximum number of bets on her.
Once the traps were opened, Chicquita kept on following the leaders. She did not allow them to create a big gap and decided to push hard towards the ending moments. She made a terrible mistake, entering the final furlong, but luckily
did not lose any places because of that and got into the lead. From that point onwards, no one managed to stop her and she comfortably ended on top by half a length.
Though others did not expect the race to go Chicquita’s way, her trainer Alain de Royer-Dupre was always confident of a positive result and claimed, “Although she had never won before this I knew she was a top filly. The Curragh
is the right track for a filly like her with her long action and it was a good ride from Johnny Murtagh as she is not an easy ride.”
He went onto say, “She is an easy horse to train - we never have any problems with her. We have to be careful with her on the racetrack. I don't want to put blinkers on her. I don't want to change anything. I hope she will learn
more. The main race for a filly like her is the Prix Vermeille and then maybe the Arc.”
This was the first ever victory for the young filly, who has just appeared in a total of four events in her career until now.
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