RACING: Mail The Desert gave her jockey Steve Drowne a first success in Ireland in yesterday's Moyglare Stud Stakes.
Along with Pearl Dance, the Mick Channon-trained winner dominated most of the race and it was only in the dying strides that Luminata interrupted the English stables' party.
She was the Jim Bolger second string, compared to the favourite Danaskaya, but despite her late rattle, Luminata still came up a head short on the line.
Drowne's only previous Group One victory had been on last year's top juvenile filly, Queen's Logic, in the Cheveley Park Stakes.
The closest the jockey had ever come to a success in Ireland was when Golden Silca was beaten by Hula Angel in the 1999 1,000 Guineas.
"I got done a head then but it's gone the right way today," Drowne said.
"There was no pace so I decided to go on. She was very brave." Mail The Desert was a £54,000 purchase from breeder Sean Coughlan, who also bred this year's dual-Derby winner High Chaparral.
Channon wasn't present to welcome his winner and bookmaker reaction was also rather low-key, with Cashmans slapping 50 to 1 quotes on the first two for next year's 1,000 Guineas.
Plume Rouge was only seventh in the big race and her trainer Kevin Prendergast was left wondering what might have happened had Walayef run instead.
The Danzig filly kept her unbeaten record in style in the listed Round Tower Stakes and may be supplemented for the Cheveley Park.
"We got her too late and the Moyglare entry wasn't made. I wish I had one as good as her in the race!" said Prendergast.
"Her pedigree says she'll stay a mile but she has so much pace it's hard to see," he added.
The Prix de l'Abbaye will be next for Danehurst, who picked off Lady Dominatrix in the last strides of the Group Two Flying Five.
George Duffield's mount raced from last to win on ground as fast as Danehurst likes it. Connections are hoping for soft at Longchamp.
A trip to the sales could precede a career in the US for Masani, who capped his Irish season with success in the Cambridgeshire.
"He could go to the autumn sales but he is not a type for hurdling. America might be more his thing. He's a good horse and he deserved that," said Masani's trainer John Oxx.
Marienbard will head for the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe at Longchamp after a comfortable win in the Group One Grosser Preis von Baden at Baden Baden yesterday.
The Saeed bin Suroor-trained five-year-old, who was never far off the pace, was kicked clear by Frankie Dettori when turning into the straight of the mile-and-a-half contest to score by two-and-a-half lengths from Salve Regina.
The outsider Noroit finished third while Boreal and his jockey Kieren Fallon could only manage sixth place.
It has been reported that a dozen Australian studs in Victoria and New South Wales have been quarantined as a result of equine viral abortion.
In what has been termed the worst-ever outbreak to afflict Australia, 30 mares have aborted their foals and more cases are expected.
The news comes at a particularly bad time as the breeding properties stand to suffer financially at the height of the breeding season.
