Thunder Beauty, second right, makes a winning debut© Photo Healy Racing
Ken Condon's Thunder Beauty went into plenty of notebooks after landing the two-year-old fillies' maiden on debut at the Curragh.
The daughter of Night Of Thunder attracted plenty of support this morning as her price halved from 16/1 to 8/1 before going off 12/1 at the track.
She broke smartly in this big field of 17 runners over six furlongs and was well to the fore under Billy Lee.
She had front-running Moon In Her Eye and Allagar well within range at halfway and readily tanked into the lead when asked for more by Lee over a furlong out. Harannda challenged her inside the final furlong, but Thunder Beauty always looked to have her measure and went on by a length and three quarters.
The winner had to survive a stewards enquiry, though, as she edged left and tightened up Harannda approaching the final 100 yards. Palifico (5/2) completed the placings a further length and a half away.
“We seem to have a nice bunch of two-year-olds, particularly fillies, and she had been showing up well in the past three or four weeks,” said Ken Condon.
“In the spring she was showing a lot of pace but just got a little bit of a setback. She had a problem with her wither and needed a bit of time.
“She's from a staying German family and, as Billy said there, it might not have been any harm that she had an enforced break for a while.
“The last three weeks she's been working nicely. We thought she'd run well but you just don't know for sure.
“We hope she's stakes class and she's by a very good sire. She has a very professional way of doing it and she went to the line strongly so I'd say seven (furlongs) should be fine.
“She's in the new Ballyhane race (at Naas) and that might be where she goes now.”
Additional reporting by Gary Carson
