Zarinsk and Colin Keane© Photo Healy Racing
Colin Keane gave Zarinsk a well judged front-running ride to land the spoils in the opening Ballylinch Stud Irish EBF Ingabelle Stakes at Leopardstown this afternoon.
The Ger Lyons-trained filly bounced out in front from stall two in the seven-furlong Listed contest and Keane got the fractions right on the Juddmonte-owned daughter of Kodiac.
She had her rivals at work turning for home and was asked for an effort passing the two pole.
The 9/2 shot galloped on strongly in the closing stages to post a two-and-a-half length win over 2/1 favourite Library
125/1 shot Highly Desirable ran on well and just failed, by a neck, to get up for the runner-up spot.
Zarinsk had been fourth in stakes company on her last two outings, in the Group 2 Airlie Stud Stakes at the Curragh and most recently in the Group 3 Silver Flash Stakes over course and distance.
It was a 21st stakes winner this season for trainer Ger Lyons and he said afterwards:-
“Our fillies have been pretty precocious this year and they have all won their maidens well. She was a work in progress and still is I’d say.
“I’ll have to talk to the owners and I could see us putting her away until next year. Colin is quite confident about her getting a mile.
“We do a lot of work in the stalls with our horses at home and our modus is don’t take away any advantage. Wherever they bounce you ride them from and he’s kept it simple.
“We weren’t sure about the ground. It’s going to be testing and we got the best of it in that race for her. She’s not overly big but has a lovely big stride and has a lot of maturing to do.
“A winner anywhere is great but this weekend is the biggest weekend of the year for us guys in Ireland. This is a very special day and there is always a good buzz to it.”
Keane said afterwards:- “She was a very good winner of her maiden and on her last two runs she got upset a little bit in the stalls.
“The last day she fell out on her face and we kind of had to take our medicine. Thankfully today we got to go in last and she pinged the gates.
“Ideally we would have taken a lead but no-one really wanted to go so we got it on our own terms.
“We went nice even fractions and I thought we picked up well from the bottom of the straight. You saw her run out through the line and I couldn't pull her up, down to the mile-and-a-quarter start.
“She's a filly that's very much a work in progress and you won't see the best of her until next year.
“She has a lovely way of going and is a lovely actioned filly. Her stride is very long and she's a very willing filly.
“It's soft ground but it's loose and I don't think it's holding. My filly has a very good action and I think she'd handle most grounds so it felt lovely on her. The wrong man to ask is the winning jockey!”
(Additional reporting by Alan Magee)
