Desmond delight for Duntle

Duntle, winner of the Sandringham Stakes at Royal Ascot in June, earned a valuable Group 3 bracket when getting the better of in-foal Ballybacka Lady and Requisition in the featured Desmond Stakes at Leopardstown last night, where the ground turned soft after rain before and during racing.

A Danehill Dancer filly, owned by the Niarchos family and expected to campaign in America later in the year, Duntle provided Wachman and jockey Wayne Lordan with the second leg of a double, initiated by two-year-old debutant Galileo Rock.

Racing on unfavourable soft ground, Duntle’s class told in the final furlong as she edged out Ballyback Lady by three-quarters of a length. A delighted Lordan explained: “She’s a top-of-the-ground filly and struggled a bit in the ground early in the race. But the best of the ground is from the two furlong-pole to the winning post. And, when she met the rising ground, she was fine.”