Pearls Galore, orange cap, heads for home© Photo Healy Racing
Paddy Twomey's Pearls Galore rewarded favourite backers at 15/8 in the Group 3 Brownstown Stakes at Fairyhouse.
She chased the leaders into the straight and was angled out to challenge by Billy Lee. The Invincible Spirit filly readily devoured the ground to strike the front inside the final quarter of a mile.
She was pressed approaching the final furlong by Valeria Messalina and was ridden to go about her business.
The 'jolly' stuck to her task well and went on by a couple of lengths in the closing stages. Valeria Messalina (10/3) passed the post in second and was a length and a quarter ahead of Bipartisanship who rewarded the venture of connections by being black-type placed at 80/1.
"She's a very well-bred filly and this race has been the plan all year as I wanted to make her a group winner,” said Twomey.
“I have her in the Matron (Stakes, Leopardstown) and I'd say that will probably be the plan. Good ground or better is essential for her and she won't show up otherwise.
“I made that mistake last year and even running on the all-weather her foot goes in too far, she just likes to ping off the top of it.
“Barring the day I ran her on the all-weather, she's never put a foot wrong. There's not a lot of her there, she's not very big.
“I'd say it's unlikely she would run again before the Matron.”
Additional reporting by Gary Carson
