Mysteries justifies favouritism in Cork Fillies Maiden

The well supported 8-11f Mysteries kept on strongly inside the final furlong to land the odds in the opening Irish Stallion Farms EBF Fillies Maiden at Cork.

With most of the field electing to come up the centre of the track, the potentially favourable high draw the Donnacha O'Brien trained filly held proved to be less of an advantage then is often the case. Moral Turpitude led the main group, with only rank outsider Stopitnowjulia staying on the stands side tracking the eventual winner. Chris Hayes was soon hard at work on the last named filly, leaving Mysteries to do much of the work alone.

In fairness to the Gavin Ryan ridden winner, she knuckled down well once getting to the leaders and found plenty inside the last furlong to go away and win cosily at the line. Clarita and West Of Wichita stayed on well to fill the placings, with Moral Turpitude weakening late on to finish fourth.

Given how the race panned out, she was arguably value for a bit more than the winning distance of one-and-three-quarter lengths.

Winning trainer Donnacha O'Brien: "We always thought she was a smart filly but she probably wants seven furlongs or a mile and she definitely looked like that today. It looked like that the last day as well but I thought this was a nice race for her and it is nice to get her started with a win.

"She is not as compact as other No Nay Nevers, is scopier and looks more like a Classic filly than some. She will probably step up to the Silver Flash and the Debutante Stakes now."

Additional reporting by Thomas Weekes