• Events
• Latest News

Strandfield the Leopardstown lady once more

LEOPARDSTOWN isn’t a bad place to be a course specialist and Harry Rogers is certainly grateful that he has Strandfield Lady to farm these nice prizes in handicaps at this venue.

The daughter of Pairumani Star battled her way through the driving rain and deep ground for the second week in a row here under Sam James in the 1m 2f handicap to register what was her seventh course success in total.

“She’s just an amazing mare,” said Rogers afterwards. He added: “I thought the weight might stop her but it didn’t! She picked up well and did it well. We might give her a break now but she is in the Ulster Oaks at Down Royal on Saturday.”

The high of a Royal Ascot winner was followed by the low of a seven day ban, but Seamie Heffernan was smiling and economical with his words after the opening 2-y-o maiden.

Pedro The Great was impressive enough on only his second start for Aidan O’Brien having come up against Dawn Approach on his Naas debut, quickening up well on the soft ground to win by over four lengths.

“He was very green the first day. He wasn’t as green today,” said the winning rider, walking away with a smile and raising a laugh from the waiting press corps.

As one veteran hack joked, “His boss would be proud of him!”