Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
ALGHABRAH READY TO MAKE HAYE
Filly to seal first victory
ONCE-RACED filly Alghabrah should give Kevin Prendergast his first winner of 2018 in the Irish Stallion Farms Median Auction Maiden in Dundalk tonight.
This daughter of Tamayuz, a half-sister to Irish 2,000 Guineas winner Awtaad, shaped with plenty of promise on her only juvenile start, at Leopardstown in October and looks the type to carry owner Hamdan Al Maktoum’s colours with distinction as a threeyear-old.
Sent off at 16/1 for her debut, she progressed from mid division and came home well to finish second to well-regarded, Dermot Weld-trained debutante Contingent, which was sent off favourite.
Beaten a length and three-quarters, Alghabrah finished five and a half lengths clear of the third, Ballydoyle filly Forever Together, and struck this observer as a certain future winner.
Now, more than five months later, English 1,000 Guineas entry Alghabrah has been found a good opportunity to open her account before, presumably, stepping into stakes company. Jessica Harrington’s House Call looks the chief threat.
The season’s leading rider Chris Hayes, right, who will be on board Alghabrah, also has prospects on Wishing Star, from the in-form yard of Fozzy Stack, in the seven-furlong fillies maiden.
This Galileo filly ran a pleasing race on her debut here in September, when a staying third to I Can Fly, which went on to be placed at Group 3 level and is a potentially high-class filly.
Wishing Star will almost certainly develop into a much better filly when she steps up to middle distances, but might have the class to cope with the seven furlongs and her high draw tonight.
But she faces a tough task against the likes of Aidan O’brien’s 82-rated Hence, narrowly beaten on her seasonal debut in Naas, and Ger Lyons-trained Elegant Drama, collared late by Princess Yaiza on her debut over this course and distance in November.
The other maiden on the card, the Dundalk Stadium Maiden, affords Noel Meade’s 138 rated hurdler Joey Sasa, successful at Dowpatrick in October when last seen, an apparently straightforward task to make a winning start on the flat.