Drop in class works a treat for Anvika Anvika (14/1) brought up her third career success with a good finish in the DNG Excellence Handicap at the Curragh. She raced widest of all towards the rear of this big field at the '2' pole, however, she was travelling for Robbie Colgan as most of her rivals came off the bridle. The five-year-old mare made headway approaching the final furlong and Colgan began to exert his arms as he sensed a winning hand. She responded and really powered into contention in the closing stages before getting up by half a length close home. Storzando (12/1), JP's Express (22/1) and Suir Monad (11/4f) finished second, third and fourth respectively. Sheila Lavery said: "She loves to come from behind and I suppose I'd been pitching her into highly-rated races. "I thought, 'right, we'll just drop her in grade'. I actually was very confident coming into today. "She's breaking a bit better, she was really slow. She had a terrible draw, but Robbie gave her a class ride. He let her find her feet and kept filling her up, sat and sat and sat. "The ground being so heavy was a little bit of an unknown. She's run on soft, but not kind of sapping ground. "She's kind of a family horse. My mother owned a leg and mum died, so all the family own her leg in the syndicate. "If she comes out of this race fine, she'll run in the mile-two race here next week." Additional reporting by John O'Riordan
