Nell Gwyn makes amends in fine style
On offer in the morning as high as 11-4, the daughter of Danehill was returned the 6-4 favourite.
Kieren Fallon pushed her ahead inside the furlong pole and she eased clear to beat the dead-heaters Potion and Lady Shanghai.
“She’s not as good as the filly (Alexandrova) who won this last year, but did it well and is very laid-back,” reported Fallon.
O’Brien and Fallon completed a double when Kushnarenkovo ran out a cosy winner of the Irish Stallion Farms’ EBF Fillies Maiden.
She had been keeping much better company than this of late and was taken in the ring from 8-11 to 4-7.
Pat Smullen tried to steal the contest off the home turn when kicking on with Dingle Belle, but Fallon was alive to that and the daughter of Sadler’s Wells soon eased past.
“Hopefully, this will put her mind right and she will now get some black type,” said Fallon.
Eastern Appeal, with just two runs under her belt, shrugged off top weight to justify favouritism in the one mile handicap.
Given a delightful drive by Johnny Murtagh, Eastern Appeal quickened in style with less than a furlong to run to beat Quicksharp a comfortable length.
“She loved the little ease in the ground, it was a bit quick for her the last day at Naas and she met a good filly (Cheyenne Star) as well,” said Murtagh.
Halford landed a double when in-form Paddy Flood guided heavily-backed Maxxium to victory in the Brandon Hotel Handicap Hurdle.
Backed from 6-1 to half those odds, Maxxium battled powerfully to master front-running Euro Leader after the last.
“When I heard the ground was good, I was worried, he just about got away with it,” said Halford. “He had a tie-forward operation, which is a new operation, and it has worked. He will mix it on the flat and over hurdles.”
Telemachus was a huge drifter in the market and performed accordingly. He lay on the ground at the back of a hurdle before the contest and rider Paul Carberry, explained what happened.
“I thought he was going to jump the hurdle and tried to get him back. He turned sideways and just got stuck under the flight.”
Telemachus, ridden much more prominently than expected, led heading to the turn in, but dropped away on straightening out.
Hit The Target lived up to her name when landing the Ballybeggan Racegoers' Club Handicap at odds of 20-1 and 46-1 on the tote.
She was soon in front and kept galloping all the way to the line to beat Dunsinane. “I couldn’t believe they didn’t go by me,” quipped her 23-year-old Dublin pilot, Robert Egan, who was enjoying a fifth win.
Harry Rogers hasn’t had the best of years, but was on the mark when Rocking Annie took the North’s Real Estate Alliance Handicap Chase.
Powers and Soda held a healthy advantage for a lot of the journey, but Rober Power produced the winner to grab the leader at the final fence.
Depth Perception, a son of Kadeed, who has threatened to deliver for a while, did just that with a fine display of jumping and trail-blazing to spreadeagle the field in the Joseph J Grace Memorial Beginners Chase.
