Khothry just denies Neophilia her hat-trick

The Dermot Weld trained Khothry got up in the nick of time to just deny Neophilia her hat-trick in the Irish Stallion Farms EBF Fillies Handicap.

Having raced in a share of second throughout, the Jim Bolger trained runner-up hit the front over two furlongs out.

The Rory Cleary ridden 9/4 favourite kept on gamely from there and inside the final furlong it appeared that she had fended off all challengers.

However Khothry had other ideas and she stayed on best close home to just get up to win by a short head.

Neophilia had to settle for second while Kiss Goodnight (7/1), who finished third here on Monday, finished in that spot again, half a length back under Connor King for John Murphy.

The successful three-year-old daughter of Marju won her maiden on her second start at Limerick last month and she followed up this evening despite drifting on-course from 5s to her starting price of 6/1.

Pat Smullen said afterwards: “I thought she would struggle off her mark. She is definetly a tough mare and the blinkers have worked the oracle (wore them at Limerick).

"Galway is a definite possibility now as she is tough and stays and they are all the qualities you need for Galway."

Additional reporting by Thomas Weekes