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Michael Graham

Michael Graham

Just Wonderful for O'Brien in the Curragh

Sat 26th May 2018, 14:22

Just Wonderful, far side, beats Lethal PromiseJust Wonderful, far side, beats Lethal Promise
© Photo Healy Racing

Just Wonderful made a winning debut for Aidan O'Brien and Ryan Moore in the juvenile fillies' maiden at the Curragh.

The daughter of Dansili was easy to back in morning trading and at the track as she drifted from 7/2 to 9/2.

The 14 runners for this six-furlong contest split into two groups with Just Wonderful racing behind the pace on the far side.

She was shaken up to improve passing the two pole and hit the front with a furlong and a half to go.

She soon put daylight between her rivals on the far side and herself, however, Lethal Promise began to motor at the head of affairs on the near side.

Just Wonderful was pushed out to score by a neck from Lethal Promise (11/2), though. O'Brien's Gossamer Wings (6/1 from 10s in the morning) was a length and a quarter back in third.

Aidan O'Brien said: “I'm delighted with her. Ours have to be good to win first time.

“We never really looked at her until last week. We dropped her down the other morning, in her piece of work, and she took off.

“She worked like a very exceptional filly but she was just ready to come here.

“Obviously we've been seeing that ours have been very green first time and making a lot of improvement from their first to their second runs. She's obviously natural to do that.

“You can never be sure first time what way they are going to be but Ryan was very happy with her.

“We'll probably look at (Royal) Ascot with her. She'll probably have to go there off the one run, if she goes, and the race you'd be thinking about is the Albany.

“Ryan won on the dam (Wading) in Newmarket and he still remembers her very well. She's a very well-bred filly.” Sparkle'n'joy was well punted from 7/1 to 4/1 favourite but finished fifth.

Paddy Power gave Just Wonderful a first show of 5/1 for the Albany.

Additional reporting by Gary Carson

1st
9/2
Tote €3.90 €2.10
2nd
nk
11/2
€2.20
3rd
1.25L
6/1
€2.30
4th
2.25L
11/2
bf
1.75L
4/1Fav
About Michael Graham
Michael has worked in horse racing journalism for more than 15 years, having also written a weekly betting column on Gaelic football and hurling for a newspaper. He is involved in writing the My Racing Story features on this website. He spent a year in South Africa completing a Diploma in Business Administration and also studied Newspaper Journalism in Belfast. He enjoys playing 5-a-side football on a regular basis.