Un Bacio Ancora opened her account at the 25th attempt when taking the Christmas Party Nights At Dundalk Stadium Claiming Race.

The 12/1 chance has been placed a number of times this year for owner/trainer Cormac Farrell including when second in a Curragh maiden and benefitted from patient tactics with plenty of pace up front in this six-furlong event.

The daughter of No Nay Never made steady headway in the straight and got well on top inside the final 100 yards under Siobhan Rutledge to beat Darcy’s Rock by a length and three-quarters. Big Baby Bull was a further half-a-length away in third.

Rutledge said, "She deserves that now, she has been knocking on the door. She has been running fairly consistently in all different sorts of grades and types of races.

"I'm glad to get her in front today, she deserves that big-time.

"Exactly (strong pace played to her strengths) - she can be a little bit slow away sometimes, she likes to pick them off. It was nice to be able to follow them around and, thankfully, when she hit the front, she stayed going strongly.

"Looking at that it seems like good value (8,000 claiming price) and I am sure there will be plenty of interest."

Big Baby Bull was the only horse claimed for €9,000 by James McAuley.

Quotes by Michael Graham