Penny Pepper takes well to Irish racing Penny Pepper, on her first start for Kevin Prendergast, quickened up nicely to take the spoils in the six furlong fillies' maiden at the Curragh. She raced prominently as Cathy's Pursuit blazed a trail. A furlong and a half out though, Chris Hayes pushed her into the lead and she galloped all the way to the line to score at 5/1. There was a two and a half length gap back to the staying on Countess Constance (20/1) with Iffraja a head further back in third at 12/1 (from 20s in the morning). Kevin Prendergast said: "I trained the dam (Evening Time) and she was quite good [won two Listed races]. She belonged to the late Mrs Whitehead and won her maiden by nine lengths at Fairyhouse. "She was in training in England last year and I have her since January. Hopefully she can get some black type. She travelled nicely and was a little bit fresh." Chris Hayes said: "She's a nice filly. We got her in from England. She had been doing things nicely without us turning the screw. The boss said to me going out that we'll try and find out as much as we can today about her. "I was very happy with her. What sort of race it was I don't know. To be honest with you it didn't ride the strongest of races. All my filly can do is improve. We might try her over a bit further; seven would be as far as she would go. "I'd say her overall target would maybe be that big sprint for three-year-olds only in Naas in a couple of weeks time." Penny Pepper was runner-up in her two races in England last season when trained by Eve Johnson Houghton. This was jockey Hayes' seventh winner of the week. Additional reporting by Alan Magee
