Boujee belies inexperience to make winning racecourse debut

Boujee looked a potentially smart mare when overcoming her inexperience to land the Tayto Group Ltd Mares INH Flat Race at Down Royal.

Held up in rear by Derek O'Connor in the early stages, the Mark Molloy trained five-year-old made headway into mid-division entering the final half-mile.

Moving into second behind long-time leader Cash The Cheque approaching the straight, she ran around a bit as her lack of a previous run began to tell.

For most of the run-in it looked as though O'Connor wouldn't get there but he held his mount together before asking for one last effort which just saw her prevail by a short-head.

Mark Molloy said: "More than tough, she's just a baby. We haven't been anywhere and she hasn't had a chance to be on grass. She just was doing everything nicely at home. She's always had an engine.

"I just said 'God, am I being unfair bringing her here?' She hasn't been away from my farm.

"I would hope she could be very smart.

"We won the Mucklemeg (Listed mares' bumper) in Gowran last year. I wanted to run her today to find out if what I thought was correct we'd have the option (to go back).

"A special rider - it is a privilege to have him (Derek O'Connor) sitting on a horse. The horse didn't know she had a race until the last while and he still looked after her.

"She actually belongs to a good friend Mark Scott and my wife."

Additional reporting by Michael Graham