THE LADY WEARS IT WELL FOR JOE

JOSEPH and Donnacha O’Brien successfully joined forces for the fifth time this week as Lady Penelope bagged the Irish Stallion Farms EBF Fillies Maiden at Down Royal yesterday.

The daughter of Night Of Thunder looked the one to beat in this five furlong dash and she had little difficulty justifying 4/7 favouritism for the red hot duo in the opener.

Lady Penelope made all the running and surged clear over the last furlong to finish almost four lengths clear of the newcomer Mutiny.

There was another useful two-year-old on show in the Foran Equine Irish EBF Maiden where

Natural Power progressed on two good runs in defeat.

On his last start the Dot Love-trained colt had chased home the potentially high class Raven’s Cry at Galway and he met nothing of her calibre here.

The 11/8 favourite took control of this race with well over a furlong to run and he finished with two and a half lengths to spare under Robbie Colgan.

In the nursery Simply True produced a nice effort from the front to strike for Andy Oliver and Ronan Whelan.

Meanwhile Spruce Meadows took advantage of a fall down the weights in the ten furlongs handicap.

This six-year-old had gone over two years without a win but he was returned a well backed 7/2 favourite to end that lengthy spell in the wilderness.

The Johnny Feane-trained gelding struck the front for Ben Coen with over a furlong to run and kept on well to defeat Severus Alexander by two lengths.