Estrange puts Oaks winner Thundering On in the shade Estrange produced a brilliant performance to record the first Group One success of her career in the Tattersalls Pretty Polly Stakes at the Curragh. Plenty of pre-race attention surrounded Oaks heroine Thundering On, but Estrange (13-8) was not without her supporters and was going just as well as Joseph O’Brien’s filly with two furlongs left of the mile-and-a-quarter showpiece to travel. Both had been patiently ridden, but it was Danny Tudhope on David O’Meara’s near-white five-year-old who got by far the best response and she ran out an authoritative length and a half winner from One Look. North Yorkshire-based O’Meara – who hails from County Cork and was landing his first Group One in Ireland – said: “A wonderful mare. She was maybe caught a little bit wide throughout, but it looked like it was pretty smooth sailing for Danny. There is a big weight for age allowance for the three-year-olds, so I didn’t know if that would tell in the last half a furlong up the hill. “She travelled nicely to the two (furlong pole). The drop back in trip has definitely not been a negative; it could have been the making of her. Maybe we have been running her over the wrong trip! “I’m delighted with today, delighted for Cheveley Park (Stud, owners). They have been sending me horses now for over a decade and it’s brilliant for them.” Coral cut Estrange to 12-1 from 20-1 for the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, a race she was forced to miss last year with a dirty scope. Paddy Power quoted 7-2 from 7-1 about the Nassau Stakes at Goodwood. O’Meara said: “We’d love to go for the Arc and she has the entry. It was important that she got the Group One win under her belt and she did so in good style today. “We’ll enjoy this and figure out where we go next.” Tudhope conceded connections had voiced concerns about giving 12lb to an impressive Oaks winner in Thundering On but insisted he had full faith in the mare. “Thundering On was very impressive at Epsom and giving weight to her was a worry, but we knew she wouldn’t be far away. We thought that coming back in trip would be a plus,” said the jockey. “If she was going to win a Group One it was this race. She has a lot of speed and her work at home says that as well. She relaxed nicely, got into a good rhythm and travelled into it nice. When I asked her she picked up well.” “She’s done nothing wrong for us and she is just a dream to ride as a jockey. She was meant to run in the Arc last year. Fingers crossed she can get there this time. That would be a dream.”
