Winning debut for Mangan as Jamie’s Darling delivers

THE best wine was left until last at yesterday’s well-attended Cork meeting when 17-year-old Jane Mangan partnered her first winner on the racetrack aboard her trainer father Jimmy’s Jamie’s Darling in the Cork & Waterford Mares’ Point-To-Point Flat Race.

Jamie’s Darling, runner-up in a Cloyne point-to-point last month, made inroads into one-time clear leader Bingo Rose’s advantage from under two furlongs out. The winning daughter of Old Vic, owned by Mangan’s brother Billy, stormed to the fore over 100 yards out win by three and a half lengths.

Not surprisingly Jane, a fifth-year student at Fermoy’s Loreto College and who won two points on Conna Castle earlier in the season, returned to a rapturous reception. Her father remarked: “This was Jane’s very first ride on the racetrack and she spent the summer with Aidan O’Brien last year. She will hopefully be going back there this summer.