Launch

Launch did well to keep on as well as she did to finish third in the Group 3 Fillies’ Sprint Stakes at Naas on Sunday. Smartly away and quickly into her stride at the head of affairs, she led or shared the lead with the well-backed Ribchestina through the first three furlongs. She came under a ride on the run to the two-furlong marker, but she kept responding. She got the better of Ribchestina, she led on the run to the furlong marker. She couldn’t contain Porta Fortuna, who quickened up impressively on the far side, and the newcomer Navassa Island finished off her race well on the near side, but she kept on willingly to hold onto third place behind them, over a length in front of Ribchestina.

This was a race that was run at a fast pace and in which the hold-up horses came to the fore. Launch showed lots of pace early on and lots of resolution late on to finish a clear third. Adrian Murray’s filly did well too on her only previous run, when she had to do a lot of her own running on the far side in a soft-ground five-furlong maiden at Cork, when she kept on well to finish a half-a-length second to Bated Moon, with whom she reversed placings here, in a race in which three of the first four home raced towards the near side. The fact that she was pitched into a Group 3 race here, a maiden having just her second run, is an indication of the regard in which she is held by connections. She should be winning her maiden soon, perhaps over five furlongs, before stepping back up in grade, but she might be under-rated now because you can probably mark her up on the bare form of each of her runs to date.
Naas, 21^st May 2023