Our Girl Naoise (Johnny King, left) stays on best from Damefirth (centre) and Cruisingdownriver (right)© Photo Healy Racing
A card that began with a couple of mares scoring at 20/1 and 10/1 was rounded off with another shock from one of the fairer sex, albeit in a mares only contest, with 25/1 outsider Our Girl Naoise landing the finale at Wexford, the bumper, under Johnny King.
A daughter of Alamshar, having her second outing here for Shane Nolan having run respectably in a Clonmel maiden hurdle last time, was making her bumper debut on start number three.
King picked his way through between horses nicely over two furlongs out on Our Girl Naoise and then proved much stronger in the final furlong than the favourite Damefirth Cruisingdownriver eventually stayed on for the second spot but she was still two and a half lengths adrift of Our Girl Naoise at the line.
"That is my third winner and I thought she had a good chance here today. She ran a cracker the last day coming back from over a year off and she came on a ton for that run.
"The better the ground the better she will be but she will also handle soft. I have four in training at the moment," revealed Nolan in the aftermath.
Miss J.M. Mangan, rider of Double Infinity trained by N Dooly, reported to the Clerk of Scales that her mount never travelled during this race.
(DM & EM)
