Cross lands first Group 1
Cahir’s Shane Cross punched the air with delight as he secured his first Group 1 on home soil courtesy of the ultra-brave Thundering Nights, who obliged in the Alwasmiyah Pretty Polly Stakes at the Curragh on Sunday. The daughter of Night Of Thunder answered her gifted pilot’s every call by refusing the yield to the seemingly inevitable and holding off Santa Barbara by a neck.
Chris Hayes registered a coveted winner on Dubai Derby Free Irish Derby day and could be dreaming of bigger days with the Nunthorpe Stakes a likely target for the Eddie Lynam-trained Romantic Proposal, who recorded an emphatic victory in the six-furlong Dubai Duty Free Dash Stakes at The Curragh on Saturday. The progressive five-year-old was given a wonderful waiting ride by Hayes before exploding to the front 150 yards out and galloping away to win by a length and a half.
Meanwhile, there was a family success for John Murphy as he trained Fearless Girl to take the nine-anda-half-furlong Treacy’s Pharmacies Handicap at Ballinrobe on Monday week last, providing star apprentice Dylan Browne McMonagle with the first leg of a double in the process. Donning the colours of the Upton handler’s wife Carolan, Browne McMonagle drew clear on the well backed 3/1 favourite along with Port Sunlight entering the straight and kept on well to prevail by half a length.
UPCOMING FIXTURES
Tipperary – Thursday, July 1 (first race 4.45pm); Bellewstown – Thursday, July 1 (first race 4.25pm); Bellewstown – Friday, July 2 (first race 4.20pm); Wexford – Friday, July 2 (first race 5.15pm); Bellewstown – Saturday, July 3 (first race 4.40pm); Naas – Saturday, July 3 (first race 1.20pm); Limerick – Sunday, July 4 (first race 1.05pm); Tramore – Sunday, July 4 (first race 1.55pm).