Halley's newcomer springs 40/1 surprise at Naas The market principals took each other on up front in the Lily & Wild Maiden at Naas and left themselves vulnerable to a closer which emerged in the shape of 40/1 chance Unwavering Monarch under Andrew Slattery. Maestro Bernstein won his private battle with market leader Diego El Queso entering the final quarter-mile but had nothing left for the final climb and it was the newcomer Unwavering Monarch, ridden in eighth two furlongs out, who stayed on best to beat Maestro Bernstein by three and three-quarter lengths. Josh Halley, who trains the winner for Mrs R J Halley, said: “I thought she’d need a bit further, so we said we’d start her out over a mile and go from there. “We bought her as a broodmare being very well bred and by Wootton Bassett. We put her back into training and she took it very well. “We wanted her to just relax off the pace a bit and learn today. I said to Andy to fire on once you turn in and she did exactly what we wanted. “We bought her to breed off and to win is a bonus for us. We’ll see how she comes out of this and go from there.” The winner made 300,000 euro at Arqana as a yearling and was bought by current connections for 40,000 guineas at Tattersalls in July this year. Additional reporting by Alan Magee
