14 August 2018

Pays to Advertise

The Martyn Meade-trained Advertise challenged Ballydoyle's supremacy in the Phoenix Stakes at the Curragh and came out on top. Aidan O'Brien has claimed this six-furlong event sixteen times in the last twenty-one renewals, the first success in 1998. Since acquiring the Historic Manton Estate in late 2017, Martyn Meade, former polo player and Master of the Hounds, has gone from strength to strength with top-rate horses. Now he has notched up his first his first Group One winner he is hoping for bigger and better things to come. His Showcasing colt is now due for a couple of months' break before taking a crack at the Dewhurst Stakes at Newmarket in October

Shining Finish

The Dermot Weld-trained Making Light lived up to her name with an impressive three-length win in theGroup One Goffs Platinum Stakes at Cork. The Tamayuz filly had already claimed a Group Three race at Naas at the start of the season and then notched up a third at the same level in Group Two company at the Curragh in May. The four-year-old travelled particularly well under Declan McDonogh's stewardship and soon dominated long-time leader Pincheck with a furlong to run. By the time she reached the post, the Moyglare Stud-owned Making Light was three lengths to the good.

Shooting Star 

This Mastercraftsman filly claimed her fourth Group 1 victory in a row, this time at Deauville. The Jessica Harrington-trained Alpha Centauri took on ten rivals in the Haras De Fresnay-le-buffard Jacques Le Marois Stakes at Deauville. The three-year-old, sporting the world-famous colours of her owners, the Niarchos Family, who had won this prestigious French feature race eight times before, initially tracked the leader in the second nearside group but, when urged by Olivier Peslier to challenge the overall leader, as they approached two furlongs from home, Alpha Centauri had no objections and soon galloped two lengths clear, increasing that to two and a half by the time she passed the post.