Rossa Baby runs away with Hawkes Memorial decider
Drawn ideally in the stripes, the brilliant tracker was subject of a late public plunge which forced track bookmakers to slash her odds from even money down as low as 4/6 in places.
The race panned out beautifully for the John Kiely trained bitch as she ploughed a lone furrow along the wide outside in the early stages.
Meanwhile, Definate Opinion was struggling to get across to the rails and early leader East River lost his place at the turn.
Owned by Pat Maguire, Rossa Baby made big strides to this point and a huge cheer went up as she took the lead on the crown of the bend. The crowd sensed victory and what happened next was inevitable. Turning down the far side with a three-length advantage, she switched to overdrive from the third bend, scorching further clear to record a six-length victory over Mustang Mission in a very fast 31.23.
On the undercard, the semi-finals of the Caste Hotel We Love Weddings A3 525 dominated and Tommy Delaney’s Leeview Jet went fastest when leading all the way for a 28.88 victory in the second heat.
Gowlane Fortune had produced a similar display when taking the first heat in 29.05 while Fair Warrior had to work harder to gain the advantage when taking the third semi-final in 29.13.
