Luke McAteer© Photo Healy Racing
Fly Girl (16/1) was an eased-down three and a quarter length winner of the BetVictor 2 Bananas To 1 Banana Handicap.
Luke McAteer pushed the daughter of The Gurkha into a prominent position from stalls and she was soon in front. All of her rivals were struggling to match strides with her from two furlongs out and she was able to coast home in the final 50 yards with Dunum doing next best in second.
A maiden winner for Jessica Harrington last year, Fly Girl was making her first appearance in the orange silks of winning owner /trainer James McAuley who said: "We actually bought her privately after she ran in the claimer - we had the horse who finished second, Alice Milligan, down in Gowran Park.
"We were thinking of buying her before that day but she didn't really perform. We said then we would see if we could strike some kind of deal and bought her a day or two later.
"She has been very straightforward since she came from Jessie's. It has worked out well.
"You can see them running (in claimers) and they are fit. I'd rather spend five or six grand and take a punt but we know we are not going to get any superstars.
"She is huge, she must be 16.2. You would imagine she would improve next year. She is still plenty light and caught us by surprise.
"Shane Foley told us 'level track and fast ground'.
"We are only 10 minutes down the road. If we had been any further, we wouldn't have brought her."
Quotes from Michael Graham
