Red Heel and Gary Carroll (red) beat Masalai (near side)© Photo Healy Racing
Red Heel (as big as 22/1 this morning, 12s into 15/2 in the show) won the Join Us On Instagram @dundalk_stadium Handicap (Div I) to give jockey Gary Carroll a quick double after his win on The Highway Rat in the previous event.
The Dylan Thomas filly, owned and bred by Aidan Archdeacon, led from an early stage and fended off plenty of challengers in the straight with the jockey not employing his whip at any point.
At the line Red Heel was a head and a neck in front of Masalai (6/1) and Tanseeq (11/2), with the 10/3 favourite Jackmel finishing in tenth.
The winner had shown some glimpses of potential in six previous starts and her mark had dropped from an initial 65 to 56.
Winning trainer Michael Mulvany said: “She works like an 80 or 90 horse at home and we were a bit disappointed with her the last few times.
“The plan was to sit in behind a couple of them but Gary said she mauled him to the front and he didn’t want to disappoint her.
“She’ll come back here again. She has a good bit of ability but hasn’t been showing it until now. Hopefully now that she’s got her head in front she can go on from here.”
The winning rider Carroll added: “Conor Hoban (who rode second home Masalai) actually broke her and she wasn’t the easiest filly to deal with. When she went to Mick’s she was tricky for a while but they got the better of her. You can’t hit her but she kept finding a bit for me today.”
Additional reporting by Alan Magee
