Almela comes home an easy winner under Pat Smullen© Photo Healy Racing
Almela justified odds-on favouritism in the feature at Galway this evening, the Listed Ardilaun Hotel Oyster Stakes.
Beaten a head into second in this contest twelve months ago, the Dermot Weld trained bay again filled the runner-up spot on her two starts since at Naas and Leopardstown respectively.
Sent off the clear favourite at 8/11 this evening, the daughter of Sea The Stars was settled in mid-division by Pat Smullen.
She took closer order on the outer on the approach to the straight, and hit the front with over a furlong to go, keeping on well from there to score easily by four and three parts of a length. Morga (10/1) kept on to take second under Chris Hayes for Des McDonogh, while Fact Or Folklore was two and a half lengths back in third under Billy Lee for Willie McCreery at 33/1.
Pat Smullen said afterwards: "It was a horrible race to ride in; it was stop-start and there was no rhythm to it but she is a filly that gets further than this trip and it forced my hand to commit a bit sooner than ideal.
"She was different class to those and she can now go up in trip and up in grade and hopefully can keep progressing.
"The form of the race from last year (when beaten by Zhukova) is strong and if Zhukova gets an ease in the ground, she could run in the mile and a half race (the KPMG Enterprise Stakes) at Leopardstown at the weekend."
On Harzand Smullen added: "The more rain that comes the better for Harzand - I was glad we got all the rain we got and while it is good to yielding at the moment, Leopardstown is a very good draining track so we need to keep getting those showers."
Paddy Powers have shortened Almela to 12/1 (from 20's) for the British Champions Fillies' and Mares' Stakes at Ascot, while they have also shortened her to 16's (from 20's) for the Long Distance Cup.
STEWARDS REPORT
The Turf Club Veterinary Officer examined How High The Moon trained by A.P.O'Brien, at the request of the Stewards and reported the animal to be post race normal.
Additional reporting by Thomas Weekes
