Irish Bitch of the Year elect Ballydoyle Honey can finish the year as she started with victory in the Gain Christmas Oaks over 525 yards at Shelbourne on Saturday.
Graham Holland’s bitch started the year with victory in the Clonmel Open Unraced Stake and has since added the Puppy Oaks, Sporting Press Oaks and Mulvaney 600 Stake to her growing C.V.
Last week she produced a performance out of the top drawer when coming from fifth place to catch an on the bunny Follys View and beat her in 28.02sec. She can prove too strong.
Brendan Matthews’ Follys View, a 28.22sec race winner at Shelbourne Park, is again one of the main dangers.
Night of Stars Bitch Stake winner Yahoo Perlena is another big player. Shane O’Gorman’s runner has only tasted defeat once in five races and dead-heated in the other semi-final last week in 28.25sec. She looks the likey leader
Hovex Princess, a sister of Ballydoyle Honey and followed her home in the Sporting Press Oaks final in the summer, ran her best race for many months in the semi-finals when forcing that dead-heat and has been rewarded with a cracking draw on the fence.
Urban Gossip is a third member of Honey’s litter to make the final but probably wants much further these days.
John Linehan’s Droopys Aurora is the only puppy in the final. She was only beaten two lengths by dead-heating pair Yahoo Perlena and Hovex Princess and is capable of improvement.
1 Hovex Princess 10
2 Yahoo Perlena 7
3 Follys View 6
4 Droopys Aurora 25
5 Ballydoyle Honey 4-9
6 Urban Gossip 16
