A PEARL OF WISDOM
Twomey’s charge makes sense back among fillies
PEARLS GALORE might take the Group 3 Irish Stallion Farms EBF Brownstown Stakes for Paddy Twomey and Billy Lee in Fairyhouse tomorrow.
A four-year-old Invincible Spirit filly, Pearls Galore looked progressive last season, bumper into a subsequent Group 1 winner along the way and made a good start to her 2021 campaign when third at this level at Leopardstown.
Previously with Freddie Head in France, Pearl Galore clicked on her first two starts for Twomey, winning a Limerick maiden on her Irish debut and following-up in a Cork handicap, off 87, in July of last year.
A 15lb hike forced Twomey’s hand to try Pearls Galore in stakes company. And she produced an excellent effort in the Fairy Bridge (Group 3) at Gowran Park on her third Irish start, beaten just a half-length by Johnny Murtagh’s subsequent Matron winner
Champers Elysees, the pair finishing five lengths clear of the rest.
The selection disappointed on her final three-year-old start, in a listed event on Dundalk’s polytrack in midnovember.
But there was a lot to like about her comeback run in the Group 3 Ballycorus Stakes at Leopardstown last month, when doing her best work late to fill third spot – beaten less than three lengths behind Rare Appeal, with one of tomorrow’s rivals Soul Search fourth.
Pearls Galore is entitled to have improved. And, with a rating of 107, she looks the one to beat.
Valeria Messalina boasts a similar rating to the selection and, seventh in the Duke Of Edinburgh at Royal Ascot last time, is among the dangers.
With Johnny Murtagh’s two-yearolds clicking into top gear, Hapipi Go Lucky is a hopeful choice in the opener, despite the obvious claims of Shoebox King and Joseph
O’brien’s Ultramarine.
This Mehmas filly was quietly-fancied for her debut at Tipperary in April and, at a time when the yard’s juveniles were not firing, was far from disgraced in finishing fifth behind Elliptic, a race from which subsequent Queen Mary winner Quick Suzy (runner-up) emerged.
Back after a break, and with Danny Sheehy claiming 3lb and deputising for suspended stable-jockey Ben Coen, she’s expected to run a big race.