Fort Del Oro

Fort Del Oro ran out an impressive winner of the six-furlong three-year-olds' maiden at The Curragh on Sunday.

Nicely away from stall 11, right against the stands rail, the Eddie Lynam-trained filly travelled well through the early stages of the race just behind the front rank. Still on the bridle passing the two-furlong marker as, one by one, her rivals came under pressure, she moved smoothly between horses to ease her way to the front. Asked for an effort by Billy Lee just before the furlong pole, she picked up really impressively and came clear, pricking her ears and just being kept up to her work to come over four lengths clear of her rivals. It was a really impressive display visually.

The race may not have taken that much winning in the end. The winner's two main market rivals both disappointed, and the runner-up is a fairly well-exposed 79-rated performer. However, Fort Del Oro could hardly have done any more than win as impressively as she did and, significantly, the time was really good. It was just 0.08secs/furlong outside standard, the fastest time of the day, the fastest of the four six-furlong races run on the day and almost a half a second faster than the time that the talented Ainippe clocked in winning the Group 3 Ballyogan Stakes an hour later. Also, she probably could have gone faster. She was value for more than the four-length winning margin.

This was just the Ballylinch Stud filly's second ever run. She shaped really encouragingly on her debut at The Curragh in early May on very soft ground, just giving best to Urbestchance close home, and she showed the benefit of that experience on Sunday. By Lope De Vega out of the Queen Mary Stakes winner Gilded, she has bags of speed, and she has lots of scope to progress further. She does not hold an entry at Royal Ascot, but she does hold a couple of Group 3 entries over the next few weeks over seven furlongs. She could develop into a really smart filly.

7th June 2015

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