Miracle Beauty gets favourite backers off to winning start at Naas

Runner-up on her racecourse debut over course and distance last month, the Joseph O'Brien trained Miracle Beauty went one better when winning the opening Irish Stallion Farms EBF Fillies Maiden at Naas.

Sent off 5/4f, the market leader had to work hard before eventually landing the spoils in a race where the field split into two distinct groups.

Although prominent on the stands side throughout, Miracle Beauty and her closest pursuer Cold Hearted looked booked for minor honours over a furlong out, as Pickersgill and Never Got Lucky led on the far side.

However, Dylan Browne McMonagle found extra aboard the daughter of Sioux Nation inside the final furlong, quickening up well to beat Cold Hearted half-a-length, with Pickersgill the same distance back in third.

Dylan Browne McMonagle said: “She’s still very raw, a big baby.

“She travelled good for the first half but she’s still learning. She’ll be a nice filly next year.”

Additional reporting by Alan Magee.