Banimpire

There was a lot to like about the performance that Banimpire put up in winning the seven-furlong juvenile fillies' race at The Curragh on Saturday. Taking over in front from Ballybacka Lady after they had gone two furlongs, Jim Bolger's filly looked beaten when that filly ranged back up to challenge two furlongs out, but she stuck her head out gallantly and batted well to wrest the lead back well inside the final furlong and win by an ever-extending three parts of a length.

This was just Banimpire's second ever run. She was weak in the market before her debut in a one-mile maiden at The Curragh earlier this month, but she kept on well there to finish third behind the Aidan O'Brien-trained pair, Spin and Luxurious, both of whom had had the benefit of a previous run. She was stepping up markedly on that performance on Saturday, beating a useful rival in the Pat Fahy-trained Ballybacka Lady - who was found to be in season after her previous disappointing effort and whose own maiden win surely isn't far off - with the pair of them coming seven lengths clear of a field that included some potentially useful fillies in a time that was only marginally slower than the time that the potentially top class Pathfork clocked in winning the Group 2 Futurity Stakes over the same course and distance a half an hour later. Bolger says that we won't see the best of Banimpire until next season, and she is bred to be even better when she steps up in trip, being out of My Renee, who won three races over a mile and a half for Michael Grassick, including a listed race at Ascot. She is an exciting filly for next year, but she would be of interest if she took up her entry in the Group 1 Fillies' Mile at Ascot on 25th September, a race in which her undoubted stamina could be brought into play.

21st August 2010

© The Irish Field, 28th August 2010

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