Scorchio enjoying herself on Polytrack

Scorchio wore down Mary Shoelaces to land the opening five-furlong nursery in Dundalk.

Mary Shoelaces was always prominent and picked up the lead before the halfway stage. She went for home a furlong and a half down, but the favourite Scorchio soon loomed large in her wing mirrors.

Wesley Joyce was on board the 'jolly' and lost his whip as his mount closed approaching the final furlong. It didn't deter him, though, as he drove Scorchio into a narrow lead in the closing stages, and the well punted 4/6 favourite came in by half a length from the plucky runner-up who was priced at 9/2.

Scorchio scored over course and distance on her penultimate start and had Mary Shoelaces back in third that day.

Jack Davison said: “That was super, I'm delighted. She's been a dinger of a filly for the syndicate and they are knocking a great bit of fun out of her.

“She's really found her feet on the all-weather and five looks to be a suitable trip, there is plenty of speed in the family.

“Hopefully she can continue to progress. My initial thought after last time (third over 6f) was back to five - she was drawn 11 then, but my gut was telling me to go back to five.

“With another win under her belt she'll get some more confidence and who knows where she'll end up.

“She travelled liked the winner two down and then Wesley dropped his stick and I briefly thought that maybe Chris could make a race of it.

“To be fair to the filly she is genuine, she dug deep and when she got to the front she was maybe just waiting on the second horse a little bit.

“She didn't have too much hardship today, so hopefully she'll be in good shape for the next day as well.

“The winners' race in a fortnight's time is the obvious one. She'll have less weight on her back there as well which will be nice as she's not over-big.

“We'll keep making hay while the sun shines. She's loving it up here and her action is set up for this kind of surface.

“She's won two now and been placed a couple of times, so maybe she could get three up before the year is out which would be great.”

Additional reporting by Gary Carson