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Punchestown 2024
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Review laytown 3rd Sep
Girls rule - Saratoga Baby and Jane Mangan at Laytown
© Photo Healy Racing
< Saratoga Baby has been in good form this year and picked up a third success in the Marquees Nationwide (QR) Handicap in front of a bumper crowd on the unique beach course at Laytown.
Peter Fahey's 11-4 joint-favourite, ridden by rising star Jane Mangan, collared the sweet-travelling Oor Jock inside the final quarter-mile and was driven two and three-quarter lengths clear.
It was the first of two triumphs for the ladies as the Hibernia Steel (QR) Race went to Nina Carberry, who landed her first victory since returning from injury when getting Stephen Mahon's 11-8 favourite USA home by a neck from Moonbi Creek
The surface proved no problem for the Damian English-trained Enigma Code who had finished last on his previous visit to the track but whose five career victories going into the Tote Mobile Betting Handicap included four at Dundalk.
The eight-year-old (11-1) was smartly away in the hands of Ian McCarthy and made all, though he had to show battling qualities to get home by half a length as he was pressed from a long way out by Ucanchoose the pair coming clear.
Andrew Lee's 3-1 favourite Captain May finished second in the Gilna's Cottage Inn Maiden last season and returned for the same race, running on strongly from the front under Wayne Lordan to beat That's Plenty by a length and a half.
Another of last year's runners-up, Ado McGuinness's veteran Toufan Express (5-1), made it 10 career victories when coasting up to the pacesetters in the Neptune Claiming Race before getting the better of Like Magic by a length and a quarter. Ian Brennan was in the plate.
Toufan Express is 11 and so is dual Laytown winner Richelieu who made a valiant attempt to make it three in the O'Neills Sports Handicap, but came up three-quarters of a length short behind Tom McCourt's Bangalore Diamond (7-2 favourite) under Colin Keane.