Memory is the odds-on favorite for Sunday’s Group 1, $300,000 Moyglare Stud Stakes, the key Curragh test for juvenile fillies in Ireland, as she steps up to seven furlongs for the first time in an attempt to win for the fourth time without defeat.
A member of Richard Hannon’s powerful stable of 2-year-olds, Memory is a Danehill Dancer filly who has won the Group 3 Albany Stakes and the Group 2 Cherry Hinton Stakes, both at six furlongs. Richard Hughes will ride in her first try outside of England.
Challenging are the first three finishers from the Group 2 Debutante Stakes, which was run over the Moyglare Stud course and distance on Aug. 8. The Jessica Harrington-trained winner that day, Laughing Lashes, prevailed by a length over Misty For Me, one of four fillies in the race trained by Aidan O’Brien.
Two other O’Brien trainees could prove more dangerous than Misty For Me. Together, the choice of Coolmore’s first-string rider, Johnny Murtagh, was third in the Debutante. A half-sister to juvenile Group 1 Criterium International winner Jan Vermeer, she had previously won the seven-furlong, Group 3 Silver Flash Stakes, beating Laughing Lashes by a length. Poised for improvement is Why, a Galileo maiden winner third time out going seven furlongs at Leopardstown whose dam, Rumplestiltskin, won the 2005 edition of the Moyglare Stud.
On the same card, Lush Lashes, a three-time Group 1 winner who lost her Sea the Stars foal this spring, will make a surprise return to the races in the 1 1/8-mile, Group 3 Dance Design Stakes for fillies and mares. A daughter of Galileo trained by Jim Bolger, she had won the Coronation Stakes and the Matron Stakes, both at a mile, and the 1 1/2-mile Yorkshire Oaks before being retired last June.
