Sweet Gardenia brings up Heffernan's lucrative treble A lucrative day for Seamie Heffernan got even better when John Murphy's Sweet Gardenia landed the Silver Irish EBF Ballyhane Stakes at 50/1. This was the €80,000 euro consolation race for the €320,00 Irish EBF Ballyhane Stakes which Heffernan landed just over an hour earlier on Chief Little Hawk. In between those successes, he won a Group 3 on Passion. Sweet Gardenia was having her third start, after running unplaced in the first two, and raced behind the leaders before moving through to be prominent at the halfway stage. She took aim at Wood Ranger approaching the final furlong and was ridden to take over from him flashing past the furlong marker. She asserted in the final 100 yards to win well by three and a quarter lengths. Notoriously Risky filled the runner-up berth at 14/1 and she was half a length in front of Tar Heel (9/1). George Murphy, son and assistant trainer, said: “We’re delighted with that. She was just a little bit green on her first couple of runs. “She did that very well and Seamie said she’s well able for a step up in class and she felt like a Group filly. “We were a little bit worried about the ground but he said she coped with it well.” This gave Heffernan a 5,277.5/1 treble. The winning prize money for the three races totaled €227,550. His other winners were Chief Little Hawk at 22/1 in the Irish EBF Ballyhane Stakes and Passion (7/2) in the Group 3 Stanerra Stakes, both for Aidan O’Brien. Additional reporting by Alan Magee
