Diamond ends O'Shea's long barren spell Annemarie O’Shea, who trains in Stoneyford, Co Kilkenny, recorded her first winner in nearly seven years, as her Diamond Stilettos took the Irish Stallion Farms EBF 2yo Maiden under Andrew Thornton. O’Shea recorded her last victory back on October 20th 2006, when her Armanatta scored at Ballinrobe, and today’s victory wasn’t coming as a surprise after the victorious chestnut daughter of Ad Valorem ran a cracker on her debut at the Curragh recently. The Sean Delaney owned filly belied her odds of 66/1 on her debut, and finished a close up third to Guerre on that occasion. Sent off at 9/4, and dropped in trip by a furlong to five, she tackled Amygdala over a furlong from home, soon getting to the front before stretching clear in the closing stages to record a comfortable two and three parts of a length success. Amygdala was returned the 7/4 favourite for Wayne Lordan and David Wachman, but she had to settle for second, while Golden Amber ran a fine race on her debut, finishing three parts of a length back in third under Billy Lee for Willie McCreery. The winner cost just €800 at Goffs last October and Adrian O’Shea (husband of winning trainer Annemarie) said afterwards: “She was a good walker. "She showed that she stays at the Curragh last time out, and she showed that she has loads of boot today. "She is improving all the time and the plan now is to run her in the Group 3 over seven furlongs (CL Weld Park Stakes) at the Curragh next Sunday." Additional reporting by Alan Magee
