Golden run for Team Foley and Harrington continues with a classy brace
JESSICA Harrington and Shane Foley are on a golden run since racing resumed and they combined for another brace of winners at Leopardstown, the highlight of which was One Voice’s resolute triumph in the Group 3 Irish Stallion Farms EBF Blue Wind Stakes.
The pair got off the mark in the Irish Stallion Farms EBF Fillies’ Maiden for two-year-olds, Foley dictating the fractions from the front on debutant Oodnadatta (5/1). The daughter of Australia kicked off the front entering the straight and nothing else could get into it, Minaun keeping on but never threatening a length and a half back.
One Voice (16/5) was just nabbed on the line by stablemate Silence Please In Listed company at Navan 11 days ago but was delivered later by Foley when stepping up in grade and then showed plenty of resolve to hold off a determined effort by Snow by half a length.
The latest pattern success comes a day after Alpine Star provided Harrington with her second Royal Ascot Group 1 triumph in the Coronation Stakes.
Foley had to forego the cross-channel trip as his current winning rate makes sitting out for two weeks not worth considering and he now joins Seamie Heffernan at the top of the jockeys’ leaderboard with 16 winners for the season.
‘She’s improved plenty,’ said the Kilkenny pilot of the Craig Bernick-owned daughter of Poet’s Voice. ‘She’s done well today. When she gets to the front she has a good look around but there’s plenty left in the tank.
‘She was slow out of the stalls so I didn’t want to rev her. She can be quite keen so I just hunted around. It opened up nicely for her and she picked up well.’
Many others enjoying a rich vein of form in the past fortnight maintained their momentum at the Foxrock venue.
Ger Lyons boasts a strike rate to compare with Aidan O’Brien’s, at just more than 21 per cent prior to the commencement of racing and he landed the juvenile colts’ and geldings’ maiden with the well-supported Ides Of August (3/1).
Colin Keane cut a confident figure on board the Newtown Anner Stud-owned-and-bred youngster, never resolving to anything more animated than hands and heels to foil O’Brien’s favourite, Southern Cape, inside the last 100 yards. The Ballydoyle maestro, who registered four Royal Ascot wins to bring his career tally to 74, didn’t have to wait long to add to his domestic tally.
Numen (7/1) stepped forward markedly from his debut, finishing off full of running stepped up in trip and off a stiff gallop to record a very impressive win under Heffernan in the threeyear-old Irish Stallion Farms EBF
Colts’ and Geldings’ Maiden. Turbine (14/1) benefited from a well-judged front-running ride by Sceptical’s regular partner, seven-pound apprentice Joey Sheridan, to garner the Holden Plant Rentals Handicap, while Declan McDonogh never had a moment’s worry as the Joseph O’Brien-conditioned handicap debutant Patrick Sarsfield (6/5f) turned what looked a competitive TRI Equestrian Handicap into a procession,
It wasn’t all about the form players though and it was a landmark date for David Geary, after Getawiggleon (20/1) supplied the Limerick handler with his first every success thanks to a brilliant piece of steering by Conor Maxwell in the Irish Stallion Farms EBF Maiden for threeyear-old fillies. ‘She handled the step up to 10 well,’ noted Geary, who is a farrier.
‘She had a little bit of form last year but it was patchy. This year she’s gotten bigger and stronger. Hopefully she can pick up a few more races along the way.’
Padraig Roche has enjoyed a good start to training since taking over from his legendary father Christy two years ago and the increase in his flat representation paid off as Lieutenant Silver (50/1) sprang a shock in the Leopardstown Handicap, courtesy of some patient work by Gary Halpin.
The Blanchardstown native bided his time from a wide draw before delivering his challenge on the wide outside in the final furlong to claim the verdict.
“It opened up
nicely and she picked up well”