Alborada proves too strong

Alborada maintained the upswing in fortunes of Newmarket trainer Mark Prescott when landing Saturday's Independent Pretty Polly…

Alborada maintained the upswing in fortunes of Newmarket trainer Mark Prescott when landing Saturday's Independent Pretty Polly Stakes at the Curragh. The filly was having her first race of the season but with the race run to suit her, Alborada, the 7 to 4 favourite, ran on too strongly for Attractive Crown and Idle Rich despite drifting to her right.

Prescott only had his first runner of the season on May 28th but Alborada was his 15th winner since then and she will now bid to try and emulate her three-parts sister, Last Second, and land Goodwood's Nassau Stakes.

"Our problems with the flu have been well documented but we've been going very well for the last month," Prescott said. "I wasn't sure she'd stay the 10 furlongs or act on the ground so I was happy to see the slow early pace."

An inquiry was called into Alborada's rather wayward route to the post and although there was no alteration to the placings her jockey George Duffield was cautioned for careless riding.

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Forget About It made a winning handicap debut in the Summer race when powering home from The Realtour whose rider put up 4lb overweight, while Tommy Stack unleashed a possibly above-average juvenile in Fear And Greed who short-headed Delray in the Japanese Gardens Maiden.

"I reckoned she was a nice filly but I thought the ground would be too soft for her. We have winter ground at home at the moment and she hadn't worked on the grass at all," said Stack who will aim Fear And Greed at the Moyglare Stud Stakes, won last year by the Stack-trained Tarascon.

The Ulster Derby may be the next target for Golden Rule who defeated Balla Sola by three and a half lengths to win the Cuisine de France Handicap and give trainer Frances Crowley her first Curragh winner.

Mystery Dream will be upped to listed class after breaking her duck in the Hall Maiden and Royal House landed the last after a brief struggle with Free To Speak.

Brian O'Connor

Brian O'Connor

Brian O'Connor is the racing correspondent of The Irish Times. He also writes the Tipping Point column