Lady O (nearest)© Photo Healy Racing
The winners keep on flowing for Jesica Harrington and Shane Foley and they landed the first race of Roscommon's new season, the Irish EBF Median Sires Series Maiden, with newcomer Lady O (11/4).
The daughter of Australia tracked the leaders on the inner and was angled out entering the final quarter-mile. Soon ridden in third, she stayed on well on the uphill run to the winning post and led close home to beat I Am Me and front-running favourite Elzem by three parts of a length and half a length.
“That was absolutely lovely because the filly is named after Lady O'Reilly who was in the syndicate and she actually bred her,” said assistant trainer Kate Harrington.
“It's a lovely touch. We bought her a couple of weeks after she passed away. It wasn't something that we set about doing but Patrick (Cooper) just fell in love with the filly.
“Being by Australia we didn't think she'd be out this early but she's just done everything so easily and she was ready to start today.
“Shane said she wasn't in love with the ground and she's only going to keep stepping forward. She's a lovely filly and we're very excited.
“Her stamina definitely kicked in late on and she's a filly that will be going a mile towards the middle to backend.
“We'll take one step at a time and see where we go. We won't talk about Royal Ascot just yet but she could get into the Chesham, I think.
“You never know, we could bring all the ladies to Saturday at Royal Ascot!”
Quotes from Gary Carson
