Charming Lady lunges late to cause 33/1 Fairyhouse surprise

Charming Lady had her head down where it counted when recording a shock 33/1 win for local trainer Tom McCourt in the Chill & Grill At Fairyhouse Handicap.

Winner of a Bellwestown maiden on her second start as a juvenile, the daughter of Charm Spirit had failed to trouble the judge on five subsequent starts.

However, following a below par reappearance in April, she again proved that she is a filly to follow on her second run of the campaign by showing vast improvement this afternoon.

Settled just off the pace setting by Robert Whearty, the filly moved closer over a furlong out and showed battle of guts to come between Vanguard Star and Aussie Girl to deny the latter close home.

“She was all wrong in Bellewstown, she had a problem with tying up and it took us a while to get her right,” said McCourt.

“We were fairly happy she was right as she did a couple of really good bits of work recently. We were quietly optimistic of a big run.

“Conor Maxwell had been riding her work and said she was full of speed. He thought she wanted five or six but looking at today she probably needed every bit of the six. I'd say her trip is a stiff five or an easy six like that.

“We'll tip away with her. Pedigree wise a lot of them handled slower ground but we worked her in Skryne on the soft and she struggled to finish it out.

“We took her up to Dundalk and she was very good there. I'd say nice ground is probably ideal for her.”

Additional reporting by Gary Carson