Fran Berry likes look of Laughing Lashes
Jessica Harrington may be best known for her major jumps winners, like Moscow Flyer and Macs Joy, but her Flat string is becoming a highly profitable sideline.
Pathfork underlined his claims as one of Ireland's leading juvenile colts when he won the group Two Futurity Stakes at the Curragh last Saturday and now stable companion Laughing Lashes will attempt to register a similar effort in the fillies’ division when she contests the Group One Moyglare Stud Stakes at the same track on Sunday.
Both horses are ridden by Fran Berry and he has been impressed with the progression that the filly has made in three career starts that culminated in her victory in the Group Two Debutante Stakes four weeks ago. “From what I know the filly’s in very good form and connections are all looking forward to the big day,” he said.
Richard Hannon’s Memory is the market leader but Berry, although respectful, is not overawed by the British raider. “I’ve seen her win at Newmarket and Ascot and she’s been very impressive,” he acknowledged. “She’s a worthy favourite – and a short-priced one – and you know she’s the one to beat. But Jessica’s filly is an improving filly and she was very good at the Curragh the last day.
“She was quite green on her second start at Leopardstown [when she was second in the Silver Flash Stakes], probably didn’t get the run of the race on the day, but she learned a lot from it and that showed at the Curragh and I think she has the potential to improve again.”
The potential that Harrington has may only be fully gauged next season, with the trainer already expressing the view that the Moyglare will be the last run of the season for Laughing Lashes, but Berry has seen enough to be looking forward to the both of them. “The two are a very smart filly and a very smart colt. They’ve worked together and Pathfork has always been a little bit in front of her, but they’re two smart horses in their own right,” he said.
The going at the Curragh is currently described as good which would be greatly received at Goodwood which had to abandon Thursday’s card due to water logging, with a precautionary inspection at 8.30am on Friday to assess the chances for the weekend card. Clerk of the course Seamus Buckley said: “We’ve had 50mm in the 24 hours. I walked down the course about seven yesterday evening and it was perfectly raceable. And then we had another inch from then on and the writing was on the wall after that. We had a look at six o’clock this morning and parts of the course were waterlogged.
“We’ll do our upmost to race on Saturday. If we get some dry weather from 10 o’clock tomorrow morning on then we can only say we can be hopeful.”
The hopes for the main race of the weekend, the Group Two Celebration Mile, took something of a dent when only four runners were declared, after Chris Wall's Premio Loco, the Marcus Tregoning-trained Finjaan, Godolphin's Rio de la Plata, the Aidan O'Brien-trained Beethoven and Mark Johnston's Rainfall were all scratched and the quarter left are headed by Sir Michael Stoute's Main Aim.
Stoute has an enviable record in the race, having won six of the last 10 renewals, but goes into the race with Eddie Ahern replacing stable jockey Ryan Moore.
Moore, who has not ridden competitively since a fall at Windsor on August 9th, has already given up on one comeback at Brighton this week and, despite feeling good enough about the wrist that he injured in the fall to ride, is still no nearer to setting a date for a racecourse return.
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