She's A Babe (yellow and black) gets the better of Crotchet© Photo Healy Racing
It looked like 4/1 favourite Crotchet might be another one for Donnacha O’Brien as she travelled well to lead halfway down the straight, but Leigh Roche had used that one as his target and he produced She’s A Babe (25/1) to lead inside the final furlong and gain a short head verdict. Festina Plente (9/2) was a length and a quarter back in third.
A fifth winner of the season for Aidan Fogarty (runs Royal Ascot runner-up Forever In Dreams in the Prix de la Foret on Sunday), the winner had started her career in France and won as a two-year-old in Vichy.
She was trying seven furlongs for the first time here, and settled well under a patient steer before finding enough to just hold on from the rallying market leader.
“I jumped and travelled very nicely throughout the race, said the winning rider Leigh Roche.
“She won over five before so we said we'd give her every chance to see out the trip. She travelled and when I asked her a furlong-and-a-half down she picked up for me.
“She was game and hit the line well. I thought she had won by further than she did, I thought I was a good head up on him.
“Going by the line Donnacha said well done so I was surprised when they said a short-head, I thought it was a little bit more cosy but she won and it's great.”
Additional reporting by Gary Carson
