Love Locket another precious winner for Donnacha

Love Locket (2/1 fav) completed quick doubles for Aidan and Donnacha O’Brien when beating fast-finishing stablemate Darkest (16/1) in the Irish Stallion Farms EBF Fillies’ Maiden.

The winner, who had shown promise on two previous outings when not having the clearest of runs, was always prominent and scored by a length with Darkest making good late headway down the stands’ side to take second. Lapses Linguae (25/1) was another half a length away in third spot.

The winning daughter of No Nay Never, withdrawn last weekend at the Curragh because of testing ground, handled the soft to heavy ground well on this occasion and with her grandam being a half-sister to High Chaparral, she promises to stay quite well next season.

"She’s learning and Donnacha (now four ahead of Colin Keane again 103-99) said she was still a bit green today, said winning trainer Aidan O’Brien.

"He said she will get much further than six too which is good. I’d say that will be it for this year.

“The other filly (Darkest) ran well too. She showed a bit the last day and showed more today. Sometimes they take four runs before they improve.”

Additional reporting by Alan Magee