RACING CURRAGH REPORT:JOCKEY SÉAMUS Heffernan tasted Group One glory for the first time in two years with Misty For Me's all-the-way Moyglare Stud Stakes victory at the Curragh yesterday.
If Aidan O’Brien couldn’t quite believe it was five years since he’d last won Ireland’s premier race for juvenile fillies, then Heffernan was all too aware of the hiatus in his record of top-flight success.
For the man who enjoyed a remarkable 2008 in particular, with three Classic victories at the Curragh, as well as a Moyglare victory on Again, the last couple of seasons have been an exercise in big-race frustration that ended in some style with Misty For Me’s 10 to 1 win yesterday.
Not for the first time Heffernan made the most of Johnny Murtagh’s discards and while the champion jockey had to settle for fourth on Together, it was the Ballydoyle second-string that dominated throughout to beat Laughing Lashes by a length.
“Aidan told me to let her stride on from the start. I just rode to instructions and I was on the best filly in the race – simple,” grinned the 37-year-old rider who has won five Irish Classics among an impressive list of eight previous Group One bullseyes.
“I’ve not had one this year but I was second in the Derby (At First Sight) and that’s nearly as good as a Group One!”
Misty For Me’s own top-flight tally might be only beginning as Aidan O’Brien didn’t rule out a tilt next at Ascot’s Fillies Mile and the Galileo filly is a 10 to 1 shot for next year’s 1,000 Guineas.
“She’s not short of speed but she stays very well and we will look at Ascot. These Galileos are so tough and she has the pace to go with it,” said O’Brien who was enjoying a fifth Moyglare success. “It only seems like yesterday since Rumplestiltskin (2005) won.”
Misty For Me was reversing Debutante Stakes form with the €23,500 supplementary entry Laughing Lashes who flashed her tail under pressure in the closing stages as Kissable finished best of all in third.
But the disappointment of the race was the evens favourite Memory who lost her unbeaten record with a never-in-contention sixth. “She didn’t fire at all,” said Richard Hannon Jnr. “A few of ours have been doing something similar recently. We will sleep on it and see if there is any physical reason. But she was never going so you can’t say it was the distance.”
It was a rare reverse for the cross-channel raiders yesterday as Astrophysical Jet authoritatively landed the Group Three Flying Five and Dingle View sprang a 22 to 1 shock in the Round Tower Stakes by beating Glor Na Mara.
Dingle View was a first ever Group success for jockey Cathy Gannon, the former champion apprentice in Ireland, who has struck a successful partnership with Welsh trainer David Evans.
Astrophysical Jet proved conclusively to trainer Ed McMahon that sprinting is her game with a two-length victory that has earned her a break until next season.
“I’m never one to bottom good horses and that’s it for the year. She could come back in something like the Palace House,” said McMahon after watching jockey Graham Gibbons steer her to a defeat of Tax Free and Santo Padre. “Graham kept telling me to go sprinting but she’s well bred and in the spring I thought she was a Guineas filly. I had to relent in the end.”
The 170,000 guineas purchase Obama Rule broke her maiden in style with a Group Three victory in the Dance Design Stakes for trainer Joanna Morgan and jockey Declan McDonogh.
The former triple-Group One winner Lush Lashes could manage only fourth on her comeback and Morgan said: “This filly is very talented and I hope she stays in training next year. She will get better.”
The 7lb claimer Conor Hoban secured the €100,000 Irish Cambridgeshire on board Hujaylea whose trainer Michael Halford reported: “This horse started off with a mark of 48 and it is great to win a prize like this. We discovered he had a little back problem so gave him a break and fixed it up.”
Women were free-in which boosted the attendance by 1,100 on last year to 4,982.
