Royal reward for James Tate at the Curragh

Royal Dress caused a minor upset in the Al Shira’aa Racing Meadow Court Stakes at the Curragh.

James Tate’s filly kicked off her season with a shock 33-1 victory in a Listed event at Goodwood, but proved that effort was no fluke when finishing a close-up third behind Breege in the Group Three Princess Elizabeth Stakes on Derby day at Epsom.

The Group Two Duke of Cambridge Stakes at Royal Ascot may have proved a step too far for the Night Of Thunder filly, but dropping back to Group Three level in Ireland she showed her true worth, scoring by just under three lengths at odds of 16-1 under Ben Coen.

Tate said: “I’m delighted with that, I wasn’t so happy when she was an unlucky third at Epsom or when the ground got a bit quick for her at Ascot, but everything went perfectly today.

“I was hoping that the ground today was soft enough for her. We discovered at Ascot that it’s not really that she needs the ground soft, she just needs a decent test of stamina. So although the ground wasn’t that soft today, with Sparks Fly going off so quick, that played nicely into our hands.

“There’s no way we’ll be going back to a mile now after winning over nine furlongs today. A mile and a quarter would be ideal and on that kind of ground you wouldn’t even rule out a mile and a half.

“I think it would be a bit greedy to go for the Nassau (at Goodwood on August 1). It was either this race today, or there were a couple of other options, including the Nassau.

“We’ve chosen this and it’s worked out great, so we’ll enjoy today and see what mile-and-a-quarter or mile-and-a-half Group Ones or Group Twos we can find on soft ground.”

Ephesus toughed it out in the Fleetwood Paints Irish EBF Maiden to give Aidan O’Brien and Ryan Moore a winner.

Third, second and fourth respectively in his first three starts, the chestnut son of Galileo was applied with cheekpieces for his latest outing and they appeared to have the desired effect.

Moore was in no mood to hang around, sending the 13-8 favourite to the front from flag-fall and kicking for home on the home turn, a move which paid off as he stayed on dourly up the straight to see off the sustained challenge of Rosso by a length and a half.

O’Brien said: “I’m delighted with him. He’s a horse that stays very well and he’ll stay further than a mile and a half, he’s genuine.

“We’ll look for a staying handicap, he’ll have no problem going a mile and six.”

Mary Shoelaces was a 12-1 winner of the Newbridge Silverware Sprint Handicap for the father-son training partnership of Eddie and Patrick Harty, digging deep under 5lb claimer Wayne Hassett to see off 9-4 favourite Kendall Roy by half a length.

“You can see that she’s very small. She’s always had a lot of speed and that’s delightful to get,” said Eddie Harty.

“She’s run consistently all her life without getting her head in front. She got very close at Dundalk in the spring.

“It was lovely to see, she is quick. She’ll go up for that, rightly so, but won’t go up an awful lot. It would be nice to find something back here again.”

Vera’s Secret (12-1) dominated her rivals in the Irish Stallion Farms EBF Fillies Handicap.

Making her handicap debut having hinted at ability in three maiden outings, John Feane’s mare put her rivals to the sword with a six-and-a-half-length verdict in the hands of Nathan Crosse.

Feane said: “She was good last year. She was unlucky the first day and then she did things wrong afterwards in her races.

“We like her a lot, I’ve always liked her, and it’s good that she did things properly today. She wasn’t too keen.”