Avenue Gabriel, far side, hits the front late at the Curragh© Photo Healy Racing
Chris Hayes must have come back in with paint on his silks as he took the inside line down the rail on Avenue Gabriel to nab Minorette in the Listed Flame Of Tara Stakes for juvenile fillies.
Minorette had them all on the stretch at the business end of a mile as Michael Hussey strove to get her home in front. Dazzling the 8/11 favourite, with Joseph O’Brien putting up two pounds overweight looked to be struggling to get on terms when hampered in fourth with a furlong and a half to go. She finished an eased down sixth.
Avenue Gabrial got her opening on the rail and hit the front with 50 yards to go to win by a neck at 4/1. Ballybacka Queen grabbed second from Minorette at 16/1.
Successful trainer Paul Deegan said: “She’s improving all the time. What was to be her last piece of work was done so easily that we had to work her again earlier this week with older horses.
“She’s a big, tall, scopey filly. It got rough out there, but she has the heart of a lion and is as tough as they come. She has two nice entries in the Fillies’ Mile [at Newmarket] and the Prix Marcel Boussac [at Longchamp]. She’ll probably go for the Fillies’ Mile all being well.
“I knew the step up in trip today was always going to help her and she’s from a good staying family. We always thought she would be best suited by soft ground, but the best bit of work she did was on fast ground.”
Additional reporting by Alan Magee
