Damson odds cut after Curragh triumph

David Wachman’s star filly Damson strengthened her position at the head of the betting for next season’s 1000 Guineas with a workmanlike victory over the colts in the Independent Waterford Wedgwood Phoenix Stakes at the Curragh today.

After the daughter of Entrepreneur had become the first of her sex since Eva Luna in 1994 to win the prestigious Group One contest, Ladbrokes cut her to 10-1 from 12-1, while Coral go 14-1 from 16-1 and William Hill and local layers Cashmans 12-1 from 14-1 for the Newmarket Classic next May.

The field for the feature event was reduced to six following the defection of Carnegie Hall with a bruised foot.

As soon as the race was under way Jamie Spencer settled Aidan O’Brien’s Russian Blue at the front, tracked by his stable companion Oratorio, with Damson tucked away on the rails.

As the two leaders increased the tempo with a quarter of a mile to go, Kieren Fallon just had to shake Damson up to take closer order.

He then went for a narrow gap between the front two and the 8-11 favourite proved very brave as she squeezed through to take the lead a furlong out.

She needed to be kept up to her work to hold Oratorio by three-quarters of a length, with a half-length back to Russian Blue. The first three were five lengths clear of the remainder.

After saddling his first winner at the highest level, Wachman said: “She’s so switched off. Kieren said it’s only a matter of pressing the button. She seems so relaxed in behind horses.

“It’s a big relief to have that over with and we’ll think about the Cheveley Park now.”

Fallon, riding the unbeaten filly for the first time, was always confident he had his two rivals’ measure and added: “I was hoping I’d get the gap.

“She was always going well within herself. She’s very laid-back and switched off.”

O’Brien and Spencer teamed up to take the first two races on the card with Chinese Dragon and Solskjaer.

Ex-invalid Solskjaer put up a brave performance to narrowly take the Royal Whip from the well-backed favourite Tropical Lady.

O’Brien’s four-year-old made all the running and held on gamely when pressed in the closing stages after racing into a strong headwind up the straight.

However, Solskjaer (9-4) may have been fortunate to score as the runner-up, attempting to win her sixth race on the bounce, was stuck on the rails all the way up the straight in the Group Two contest.

The 11-8 chance only found racing room well inside the last of the 10 furlongs, but it was all too late and she just failed by a head to get up.

Media Puzzle, having his first race since winning the 2002 Melbourne Cup, showed up well in the straight and finished fifth of the six runners, beaten just over two lengths by the winner.

Solskjaer, carrying the colours of the trainer’s wife Ann Marie, was highly rated by O’Brien as a youngster but suffered two serious injuries.

“He had an injury at two which he should never have come back from,” O’Brien said.

“We thought he was nearly our best two-year-old and that’s why we called him Solskjaer, but he tore all his ligaments off his hock and we thought he’d never race again. He came back in the Guineas and then did the same thing again.

“When you have two horrific injuries like that, 99 per cent of horses wouldn’t come back.

“But he’s on the way back now and with every race he’s getting better.

“He’ll have a break now and then we’ll train him for a big one. We might train him for the Irish Champion.”

Chinese Dragon landed odds of 9-10 in the opening Waterford Crystal EBF Maiden.

But the Stravinsky colt, well beaten on his debut at Tipperary last month, was made to pull out all the stops by the slow-starting Lightwood Lady and only held the filly at bay by a length.

“He’s a lovely horse but he was just too babyish first time. We’ll step him up to a conditions or a Listed race now,” said O’Brien.