Palace and Seamie Heffernan (centre) come to head Dalkova (right) in the closing stages© Photo Healy Racing
The Aidan O’Brien trained Palace justified favouritism as she took the inaugural running of the Listed Irish Stallion Farms EBF Cairn Rouge Stakes at Killarney.
The three-year-old daughter of Fastnet Rock was fifth in the 1000 Guineas at the Curragh in May before she finished seventh of seventeen in the Epsom Oaks.
She went down by just three parts of a length to Carla Bianca on her last start in the Listed Oaks Trial at Naas and dropped back to a mile this evening she was sent off the clear 11/8 favourite.
Ridden by Seamie Heffernan she was fifth after halfway and was ridden in fourth under three furlongs out.
She appeared to be struggling with two furlongs to race but she soon got going, keeping on best inside the final furlong to hit the front under 50 yards out before going on to score by half a length at the line. Dalkova ran a cracker to take second at 14/1 under Niall McCullagh for Johnny Murtagh, while O’Brien also took third with Beyond Brilliance (16/1) who was ridden by his daughter Ana.
O’Brien said afterwards: "She wouldn’t mind a step up in trip and she is a hardy lady. She is in at that weekend in both the Kilboy Stakes and the Oaks. The Kilboy is a possibility.
"My horses are in that place right now where most are well and they can turn out again quiet quickly.
"The ground is a credit to Killarney. Beyond Brilliance had a great run and it’s great to get blacktype with her and Ana gave her a good ride to get third."
Additional reporting by Thomas Weekes
