Estrange puts Oaks winner Thundering On in the shade

Estrange produced a brilliant performance to record the first Group One success of her career in the Tattersalls Pretty Polly Stakes at the Curragh.

Plenty of pre-race attention surrounded Oaks heroine Thundering On, but Estrange (13-8) was not without her supporters and was going just as well as Joseph O’Brien’s filly with two furlongs left of the mile and a quarter showpiece to travel.

Both had been patiently ridden, but it was Danny Tudhope on David O’Meara’s near-white five-year-old who got by far the best response and she ran out an authoritative length and a half winner from One Look.

North Yorkshire-based O’Meara said: “A wonderful mare. She was maybe caught a little bit wide throughout, but it looked like it was pretty smooth sailing for Danny. There is a big weight for age allowance for the three-year-olds, so I didn’t know if that would tell in the last half a furlong up the hill.

“She travelled nicely to the two (furlong pole). The drop back in trip has definitely not been a negative; it could have been the making of her. Maybe we have been running her over the wrong trip!

“I’m delighted with today, delighted for Cheveley Park (Stud, owners). They have been sending me horses now for over a decade and it’s brilliant for them.”

Coral cut Estrange to 12-1 from 20-1 for the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, a race she was forced to miss last year with a dirty scope. Paddy Power quoted 7-2 from 7-1 about the Nassau Stakes at Goodwood.

O’Meara said: “We’d love to go for the Arc and she has the entry. It was important that she got the Group One win under her belt and she did so in good style today.

“We’ll enjoy this and figure out where we go next.”