Duckadilly looks very smart in Fairyhouse winners' contest Duckadilly showed a smart turn of foot to make a winning return to action in the Pat’s Carpets Race at Fairyhouse this evening. The Danny McLoughlin-trained filly had won on her sole previous outing at Naas in May 2024. She went to post a 6/1 shot on her comeback run and came with a strong late surge under Dylan Browne McMonagle. The daughter of Churchill had to switch out to get a run a furlong-and-a-half from home and swooped in the closing stages to post a cosy two-and-a-quarter length win over Bravais. McLoughlin said afterwards:- “She’s a filly that I’ve had an awful lot of faith in all the way through. “She won in Naas last year and people were saying ‘how was she that long off the track?’. I was minding her a lot as I always held her in very high regard. “I’m only a young trainer and to come across a horse like this so early... “You see her in the race, she goes through the gears very easy. Ben Coen rides her all her work but unfortunately he was down in Cork today. Scott McCullagh rode her work last year as well. “I always wanted to see more out of her at home, and I wasn’t seeing it. “Ben put the faith in me the last day, he said he’d never ridden her to be flat out. He said he hadn’t ever got to the bottom of her in her work and said he thought she’d take an awful lot of getting to the bottom of. “She was working with very decent horses but I had to see it in front of me to really believe it. “She was even doing that easy today and parking up when she hit the front. “Nothing ever happened to her or went against her last year. We took our time and got balloted out in a Listed race at Dundalk at the end of the season. “She was out with a friend of mine Derek McCormack all winter and did well but when she came back in she got stomach ulcers. She wasn’t doing well and I couldn’t train her. “I sent her to another friend of mine, Paul Winters, and he turned her around in six weeks. He needs to take a lot of the credit for the filly getting here today. “She’s a four-year-old but it’s still only the start with her. Dylan said that she’s a very good filly and that she’d have no problem going through the grades. “The plan was to run in the Kooyonga last week but Ben said to go to the winners race and then go to the Brownstown (Stakes at Leopardstown, July 10th). We’ll probably go there now for a Group 3, fillies only. “There is still an awful lot of improvement in this filly. Dylan said today she was probably the first pulled up as she hits the front and doesn’t do a whole pile. “She just needs a target, hits the front and doesn’t go too far in front. “Last year I was only learning about her and getting to know her. I don’t regret anything and I’m looking forward to enjoying her this year. Hopefully she can put me on the map and get me going.”
