Murtagh's reserve wins opener under Danny Sheehy

There was a good finish to the opening Foran Equine Irish EBF Fillies’ Maiden with Amazed By Grace (22/1) getting to the front close home to score by a head under Danny Sheehy.

Barrier Trial winner Zaffy’s Pride ran on strongly for second with the 4/7 favourite Dense Star a further neck away in third.

The winner, a half-sister to two winners, cost E32,000 as a yearling and had run well on debut in a strong maiden at The Curragh in June before not matching that effort at Navan on her second start. She got in as second reserve and took full advantage.

"It's a nice surprise and it was a nice surprise to get in in the first place,” said winning trainer Johnny Murtagh.

“We were just sitting down for a cup of tea when one of the lads said 'Johnny there are two non-runners in the first'. Without that we wouldn't have known and we had a bit of a rush to get here.

“We always liked this filly but she's been a little bit disappointing. She's big, tall, and might have been a bit weak.

“We gave her a couple of weeks out in the paddock and she's really strengthened up.

“I thought the favourite would be very hard to beat today but she's a nice filly and she could well improve from this. Hopefully she can go on to better things.

“She was one of our faster two-year-olds, herself and Measure Of Magic were the most forward ones we had but Measure Of Magic was a bit more precocious and she just took time with her size and frame.

“She's filled up into that now and hopefully she'll have a bit better future now.”

Additional reporting by Gary Carson