Under The Radar: Sheila Lavery's three to follow

Maeda Matsu jumped smartly from stalls and was quickly into her racing rhythm, just behind the pace.  You could easily pick out the colours on Rory Cleary’s back, vivid red in a sea of pale, her rider motionless.  She just got a little bit keen as they settled down, she started to compete as they raced to the turn, so her rider took her back a little, back into fifth or sixth and behind runners, and she relaxed.

Sheila Lavery looked on intently as the juveniles turned for home, her filly quickly into clear sailing towards the outside.  The trainer watched as Maeda Matsu moved up easily on the outside of the grey filly Silver Kiss, Rory Cleary just giving her a little squeeze as all around him rowed away.  Then it was a case of how much she would find.  You’re just hoping that she’ll see out the extra furlong, you’re just hoping that her early exertions won’t take their toll.

She did and they didn’t.  The Dubawi Legend filly joined the leader on the run to the furlong marker and moved on.  She rolled a little to her left – there’s the greenness, there’s the inexperience – but her rider quickly had her straightened out and going forward again.  Star Glory finished off her race well but she was never getting to Sheila Lavery’s filly, who had three parts of a length in hand by the time they got to the winning line.

“It was really nice,” says the trainer, who was recording her first won of the 2026 season.  “We were very hopeful going into the race, we were very happy with her.  But, you know, we were having a quiet year, the horses were running well, just not winning.  So it was a great relief.”  

It was at the Goffs Orby sale last October that Sheila Lavery first saw Maeda Matsu, then an unnamed, unbroken yearling by Dubawi Legend, out of the Canford Cliffs mare Poole Belle.  She had trained the filly’s half-sister by Calyx, Salah Belle, who won her maiden at Dundalk on her first run, and who had sprung a bit of a surprise in a three-year-olds’ handicap at The Curragh on her third, so she was always going to have a look at the Dubawi Legend filly.

“When I saw her first,” the trainer says, “all I saw was a racehorse.  She wasn’t the prettiest, but she had a real athletic walk, and I loved her eye.  Sometimes, as soon as a horse walks out of the stable, you can tell: yes or no.”

This filly was an emphatic yes.

“I didn’t have any orders going to the sale.  John (Lavery, brother) said that he’d buy one horse, and he had already bought one, a Dark Angel filly out of Belle Image.  So I bought her myself and fortunately I was able to convince John to take most of her!”

She impressed from the start.  Even in the early throes, before she started working, she was doing everything right.

“Roz Hogan in particular loved her from the start.  ‘Do you feel the power?’ she used to say.  It became a bit of a phrase with the filly.  Do you feel the power?  That’s where her name came from.  Maeda Matsu.”

Look it up: a Japanese noblewoman from the 16th century, a diplomat and a martial arts expert (a potent combination), renowned for her fierce determination.

Rory Cleary rode her work, Ben Coen rode her work, and all the reports were positive.  She didn’t grow massively, but she filled out, started to grow into the racehorse that her trainer saw in her as a yearling.

“We would have started her off earlier, but she got hyperplasia.  A lot of young horses get it, it’s like tonsilitis, they get inflated spots on the trachea.  She had to have a 10-day course of antibiotics, she was fine afterwards, it just delayed her a little bit.”

Ideally Maeda Matsu would have had a run before August, ideally she wouldn't have made her racecourse debut in the Ballyhane Stakes, but she was doing everything well at home, they decided to allow her take her chance.  The market made her a 100-1 shot, but the market got that one wrong.  She out-ran her odds by a distance, stayed on nicely to finish a clear second to Ger Lyons’ filly Livenka, who would have been high in the market for last week’s Group Two Lowther Stakes had she taken up her entry.

“We were hoping that she would run well in the Ballyhane.  We didn’t think that she was a 100/1 shot going into the race, but we were obviously delighted with her performance.  She showed signs of greenness too, we don’t push them too hard at home, she was always going to improve from that run.”

Next up for Maeda Matsu is the Listed Ingabelle Stakes at Leopardstown at the Irish Champions’ Festival.  Her trainer had it in her head before Naas.  If all went well at Naas, that’s where she would go.

“I thought about entering her in the Moyglare but, in the end, decided not to.  We’ll take it one step at a time.  The Ingabelle will obviously be a hot race, but I think that Leopardstown will suit her, as long as the ground isn’t too soft, and seven furlongs is a good trip for her for now.  We think that she’s going to continue to improve.  Rory (Cleary) says that she will be even better as a three-year-old, and hopefully she’ll stay a mile.”

Comparisons with other top-class horses that Sheila Lavery has trained are difficult.  Lady Kaya won the Group Three Leopardstown Guineas Trial and finished second behind Hermosa in the 1000 Guineas.  New Energy won his maiden at The Curragh on his racecourse debut, and finished second behind Native Trail in the Irish 2000 Guineas.

“Lady Kaya and New Energy would go up the Old Vic (at The Curragh) very easily.  We’d hop on at the seven-furlong marker, and they would still be on the bridle when they got to the top.  This filly is not far off that.”

She still showed signs of greenness when she won at Naas, so we hope that she will progress again from that.  She goes for the Ingabelle Stakes at Leopardstown next, all going well.  We think that she will be even better as a three-year-old, and we hope that she will stay a mile.

This is the Dark Angel filly out of Belle Image that John bought at the Tattersalls Ireland September Yearling Sale.  Her dam was a good filly for us, she finished fourth in the Irish 1000 Guineas, beaten just over a length, and this filly is going nicely at home.  She holds an entry in the Tattersalls Ireland race at The Curragh at the Irish Champions’ Festival.

By New Bay out of Viztoria, who won the Group 2 Park Stakes at Doncaster for John, he ran in a barrier trial at Leopardstown on Wednesday, and he went nicely.  He should come on for that, and we’re looking forward to getting him going.