Katola and Chris Hayes win for trainer Dermot Weld and the Aga Khan. © Photo Healy Racing
Dermot Weld introduced a nice debutant in Katola who stayed on strongly to go in at the first time of asking in the ARKequine ACME Fillies Maiden at Naas.
A half-sister to three winners, the daughter of Awtaad had been due to make her debut at Galway on Saturday but was withdrawn due to the ground conditions.
She certainly knew her job here, tracking the leaders under Chris Hayes in the early stages of the race, before being asked to move closer over two furlongs out. Despite briefly finding herself short of room, the Aga Khan owned filly belied her lack of previous experience to extricate herself from trouble.
Getting to the leaders at the furlong pole, Katola showed a real determined attitude in keeping on strongly to get the better of the more experienced Water Nymph
“She's a lovely filly. She did it well, she was a little bit green as it was her first run and she'll come on for it,” said Weld.
“I would have been surprised (if she was beaten). She had to be brave and once she got a bit of daylight it was all over.
“She'll progress and you hope to be able to get black-type with her during the year.”
Additional reporting by Gary Carson
