Hunter's Light claims first Group race victory through Irska
French filly stuck on well in a British-dominated Prix de Lieurey
Irska made a significant breakthrough in the stallion career of Hunter's Light as she gave him a first stakes win in the Group 3 Prix de Lieurey at Deauville on Saturday.
Markus Nigge's locally-trained runner was preventing a British clean sweep in the mile-long contest for three-year-old fillies, staying on bravely in the closing stages ahead of Charlie Appleby's Althiqa and the Richard Hannon-trained Cloak Of Spirits with the Roger Varian runner Fooraat in fourth.
Irsqa, from the first crop of Hunter's Light's two to have raced so far, has been easily his best performer to date as she has already been placed in two Listed events.
The stallion has shown some promise from fairly small numbers, with 17 winners from 51 runners seen so far, most of which have been in France.
The son of Dubawi, closely related to the mighty Darshaan, has been standing at Darley's Haras du Logis for a €4,000 fee after the conclusion of his career with Godolphin and Saeed Bin Suroor.
He won 12 times, mostly at stakes level and struck twice in Dubai Group 1 races as well as in the Premio Roma in Italy.
Irska was bred by Nigge, who knows the family very well. He trained two of her siblings, Happy Approach and Toijk, to place in Group company and also also prepared her dam, the Medicean mare Eire, for a consistent spell at stakes level.
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Published on 15 August 2020inNews
Last updated 18:08, 15 August 2020
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