Falling Snow (right) and Gavin Ryan© Photo Healy Racing
Falling Snow by Justify out of the top class filly Winter, lived up to her exalted pedigree when making a winning debut under Rules in the Arc American Racing Channel Irish EBF Fillies Juvenile Race at the Curragh. Ballet Slippers set the pace and the odds-on favourite started to stretch the ten-runner field over a furlong out.
The grey Fallen Snow, who won a barrier trial at Dundalk last month, was never too far away and gradually wore down the leader inside the final furlong, getting up close home to score by a neck under Gavin Ryan.
The pair pulled five lengths clear of Celtic Motif in third.
Winning trainer Donnacha O’Brien said, “I’d say the barrier trial she won was fairly moderate but she was impressive, so we said we’d bring her here and throw her in at the deep end a little bit against one of dad’s that he thought was pretty good.
“She’s done it nicely so she’s obviously pretty smart. She’s done everything right today, she travelled and stuck at it really well and pricked her ears at the line.
“She’s big and rangy and is probably not going to be a filly until next year really.
“I had it in my head that we would give her two runs this year. If she got beat in a maiden then we would come back and win one and if she won then we’d look at a Group race.
“She might come back here for a Group 3 race over a mile. There is one in about three weeks and another in about five or six weeks. She likes a bit of nice ground and then we’ll probably put her away for the year.”
Paddy Power and Betfair cut the winner into 20/1 (from 33/1) for next year’s 1000 Guineas and 25/1 (from 33/1) for the Oaks.
