My Silver Nails out to make amends for demoted sire

Revenge is a dish best served cold, they say, and six years after Tough As Nails made all at the Curragh to win the first two-year-old race of the season in Ireland only to be demoted by the stewards, My Silver Nails could square accounts for her sire and connections in this year’s event, transferred to Naas on Sunday.

Tough As Nails went on to break his maiden by seven lengths and run future Classic winner Power to a short head when second in the Marble Hill Stakes. The son of Dark Angel also notched placings in the Railway Stakes and Phoenix Stakes.

He was trained in County Meath by Michael Mulvany for father Larry, who retained a share in the colt when he was retired to Old Meadow Stud. The homebred My Silver Nails represents the same trainer-owner combination.

“We’re hoping she’ll run – she did her last bit of work this morning and she looks a forward type who could run a big race,” said Mulvany jnr yesterday.

“She seems to be going well at home but the only concern would be the heavy ground. We’ve had enough rain here in Ireland.”

Asked whether victory for My Silver Nails would bring added satisfaction after the demotion of Tough As Nails, Mulvany said: “We don’t care too much about the past, we’re always looking to the future.”

Tough As Nails has only 14 foals in his first crop but could be doubly represented in the 5f event at Naas on Sunday, as the Kevin O’Donnell-trained filly In Like Flynn is also entered. He is the only first-season sire with any runners in the race.

Tough As Nails hails from the debut crop of Dark Angel and was one of the first horses to showcase the sire’s ability to supply precocious and classy two-year-olds.

He is something of a bellwether for his commercially red-hot sire again, as the first son to have a runner. He and fellow freshman Lethal Force are among seven stallions by Dark Angel at stud in Britain and Ireland.

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