Misty For Me surprise winner in Moyglare Stud Stakes
Misty For Me may not even have been rated the best of Aidan O’Brien runners but she turned out to be the best of the lot.
The Galileo filly, who had been turned down by stable jockey Johnny Murtagh, came through for understudy Seamus Heffernan to win the Group One Moyglare Stud Stakes at the Curragh.
Murtagh had chosen to ride Together but the markets suggested that it did not matter because Richard Hannon’s Memory, the winner of both the Albany Stakes at Royal Ascot and the Cherry Hinton Stakes at Newmarket, was reckoned a good thing to make the step up to Group One level, even if she did not have the best of the draw in stall one.
Richard Hughes was happy enough to drop in at the back of the field as Misty For Me was quickly away, tracked by Together, Laughing Lashes and Kissable. With three furlongs to run, Heffernan was already having to ride vigorously but Misty For Me responded well. Flanked by together and Laughing Lashes she battled on resolutely to beat Laughing Lashes as Kissable stayed on for third.
Memory was never better than mid-division and Hughes accepted his fate with more than a furlong to run. It was the third high-profile defeat for Hannon-trained two-year-olds in recent weeks, following on from Strong Suit in the Phoenix Stakes at the Curragh three weeks ago and Libranno in the Prix Morny at Deauville last weekend. “For some reason Memory did not fire, but some of ours have run like that recently, and we will have to take her home and get our vet, Mike O'Gorman, to give her a thorough MOT,” Hannon said.
“It was her first time at seven furlongs, but there is no way that you could put that down to the distance as she was a beaten filly before stamina became an issue. It is very disappointing, but, hopefully, something will show up from the tests."
Misty For Me had finished a length second to Laughing Lashes in the Group Two Debutante Stakes last time out but is clearly a progressive filly and O’Brien is thinking in terms of the Fillies’ Mile at Ascot next month. Heffernan had ridden Misty For Me in that race as well, when Murtagh had ridden Together to finish third, but said that he would have swapped if he had been given the choice. “I was hoping she’d improve. She ran well the last day, got a little bit tired with me. But sometimes they don’t improve and sometimes they do,” the jockey said.
“If I’d had a choice I’d have rode Together because she works like a better filly at home and the other filly is a bit idle at home.”
It was a one-two for the British runners in the Group Three Goffs Flying Five Stakes, but that was hardly surprising as there were only four Irish-trained runners in the field of 15. They were spread across almost the width of the track as Astrophysical Jet, ridden by Graham Gibbons and trained by Ed McMahon, made up for a slow start as she swept through to beat Tax Free by two lengths.
Cathy Gannon left Ireland to bring a new impetus to her career but the champion apprentice in Ireland in 2004 returned to her homeland for one of her biggest wins with Dingle View in the Group Three Go And Go Round Tower Stakes.
David Evans is not a trainer to wrap his two-year-olds in cotton wool and this filly came to the race having won three of her six previous starts. And that experience served her well as Gannon made the most of a draw in stall two to take advantage of a rail run. At the other end of the gates Kevin Manning was stuck wide on the hot favourite Glor Na Mara.
Glor Na Mara may not have had the run of the race but nothing should be taken away from the winner, who stuck on gamely through the final two furlongs to beat Glor Na Mara by a head.
Obama Rule broke her maiden in some style when she won the Group Three Dance Design Stakes for Joanna Morgan and Declan McDonogh. Obama Rule was still nearly last early in the home straight but McDonogh went for a brave run up the rail and got all the gaps which included the one through which he threaded the filly between long-time leader Shareen and Miss Laa Di Da to get the decision, after a stewards’ inquiry, by a length.
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