The Crowne Plaza Race & Stay Maiden at Dundalk this evening was fought out by a pair of 66 rated fillies and in the end the Andy Oliver trainer Pivotal Connection (6/1, from 10s) gained the upper hand to beat 8/11 favourite Dhafeera by a neck.

Ridden by her regular rider Chris Hayes, the winning daughter of Pivotal was winning at the fourth attempt, all at a mile, today and afterwards Oliver said “she's a filly we liked and as with all of these maidens we had a backlog with our horses this year and we are just getting them out now.

“I was disappointed slightly with her last run, when we thought she'd nearly win, and she came back to form there tonight.

“We thought the outside draw might be tricky and I just asked Chris (Hayes) to keep it simple. She jumped well and he gave her a lovely ride, nice and sweet.

“Hopefully she's progressive - we certainly think she is and there is more to come. She's a well-bred filly, being by Pivotal out of a Galileo mare, so it's nice to have her bracket now and hopefully she'll kick on from that.

“She loves that surface and she's one I wouldn't mind keeping for next year because she's a nice mover, has a good attitude, does things well and Chris said afterwards 'I think she's improving'. She's also thriving which is always a good sign.”

Quotes from Gary Carson