Lot Of Joy

Waterville put up a remarkable performance to win the Irish Cesarewitch, no question, a three-year-old, and coming from last to first under an inspired ride by Wayne Lordan to get up and win by a neck. But it was a race in which the early pace was strong, and Lot Of Joy did well to finish third.
Prominent early on from her wide draw, 29 of 30, Danny Tudhope allowed her drift back in the field a little behind the strong pace as they raced down the back straight. Wide the whole way, Willie Mullins’ filly made ground on the outside as they raced down the hill. Wide around the final turn, she picked up well when her rider asked him to, and she moved in towards the inside into the slipstream of the two leaders. She moved up on the outside of Yaxeni and hit the front as they raced inside the two-furlong marker, and she battled back well when she was challenged by Ruling and by her stable companion Echoes In Rain. In the end, she held off Ruling’s challenge and, while she gave best to Echoes In Rain, and had no answer to Waterville’s finishing surge, she kept on willingly all the way to the line to retain third place, beaten a total of one length by the winner.

It was a big run by the Camelot filly on just her second run in Ireland. Winner of the Swedish St Leger last October, and a winner over a mile and a half on dirt on her final run for Wido Neuroth at Jagersro in Sweden, she ran a big race in the Connacht Hotel Handicap at Galway in July on her first run for Willie Mullins, travelling well and keeping on well up the hill to take fourth place behind her stable companion Echoes In Rain and complete a 1-2-4 for her trainer in the race. A half-sister to Ebor winner and Irish St Leger winner Sonnyboyliston, she will be of interest if she take up her entry in the Cesarewitch at Newmarket next week, a race in which her trainer has seven entries, but a race that he has won three times in the last four years.
The Curragh, 25^th September 2022