Annie's Angel wins for absent Ado Successful as a two-year-old for Joseph O’Brien, Annie’s Angel recorded her first win over jumps in the two-mile mares’ handicap hurdle at Fairyhouse. The 9/1 chance made good headway to track the leaders on the approach to the straight. In front between the final two flights, she stayed on well to defeat Hashtag Doyen by five and half lengths. Ado McGuinness, busy saddling runners at Killarney, trains the daughter of Dark Angel for Conor O'Connor, Colum Currie and Mark Devenny. On getting a nice run down the inside, winning rider Conor Smithers commented:- “I did to be fair, but I had the filly underneath me to do so. You can try and go for those gaps all you want, but you need the horse. “She was game-ball there today and a huge thanks to Ado and the team for giving me the spin on her. “I couldn’t get through to him, it just went straight to voicemail so I don’t know if he has me blocked or what! Surely he’ll unblock me after this. “Looking at the form and the way she runs, the thing to do was just to keep it simple, ride her handy away and ride my race from there. “Thankfully, she was deadly everywhere and put the race to bed easy. “I knew she’d (front-runner Polly Poppins) definitely take us to a point anyway and thankfully, when I did pick it up, she was game-ball the whole way to the line. “That’s my 11th winner of the season so far, so things are going great. Thanks to everyone who has been supporting me.” Additional reporting by Gary Carson
