Fallen Angel and James Doyle win the Coolmore America ‘Justify’ Matron Stakes at Leopardstown. (Breandán Ó hUallacháin Photo)
Fallen Angel Wins Her Third Irish Group 1 with Matron Stakes Victory
By Breandán Ó hUallacháin
Fallen Angel (9/4 favourite) won the Group 1 Coolmore America ‘Justify’ Matron Stakes at Leopardstown on Saturday, day one of the Irish Champions Festival.
Trained in North Yorkshire in England by Karl Burke, the four-year-old filly won her third race at the highest level in Ireland in the past three years, with a battling half-length victory over Exactly from the Aidan O’Brien Ballydoyle yard.
The grey daughter of Too Darn Hot was prominent throughout the one-mile contest for fillies and mares, before her rider, James Doyle, began to ask her for an effort two furlongs from home.
The Wathnan Racing-owned filly disputed for the race lead at the one-eighth pole, before staying on well in the dying stages of the race, under a confident Doyle.
The win, her third Group 1 victory in Ireland, and her career fourth, allowed her show her fighting mentality once Doyle asked her for a maximum effort as Exactly (100/30) and jockey Dylan Browne McMonagle made their challenge for success. Inside the final 100m of the race, Fallen Angel pulled away from her rivals to win.
The Donnacha O’Brien-trained son of Phoenix Of Spain, Atsila (25/1) took third place for owner Barry Fowler and jockey Gavin Ryan, three-quarters of a length behind the Coolmore partners-owned runner-up.
Fallen Angel was previously successful at the Irish Champions Festival, when winning the Group 1 Moyglare Stud Stakes at The Curragh in 2023. Last May her return visit to Ireland again paid rich dividends when taking the Tattersalls Irish 1000 Guineas, also at The Curragh.
Speaking to the assembled media in the Leopardstown winner’s enclosure as he awaited the return of Fallen Angel, the winning conditioner Karl Burke, said:
“(She’s) very, very honest. James (Doyle) gave her a great ride. It just took a few rides to get to know her. You can’t pull her around; you’ve got to let her go. She should be staying a mile and a quarter really but you’re probably better off being aggressive over a mile.
“I thought we were beat a furlong out when Exactly came to us. Then I saw her get her head down and James get stuck into her… she waits and when she gets a smack, she always gives it to you.
“We felt she needed cheekpieces this time around. She got very lackadaisical in her work at home. She’ll go probably for the Sun Chariot (at Newmarket, England, in October) now before taking on the boys at Ascot (on British Champions Day, 18 October).”
It was a second Group success on Saturday’s Leopardstown card for Burke, who had earlier claimed Group 3 honours with the success of Convergent (3/1) in the CMG Group Stakes, under jockey Clifford Lee.
The son of Fascinating Rock has established a lead with two furlongs to race, and despite the best effort of Fleetfoot (33/1) and Séamie Heffernan, the former still had a half-length in hand at the wire.
Karl Burke, said of his Group 3 winner, who was third behind subsequent Epsom and Irish Derby winner Lambourn in the Boodles Chester Vase last May:
“The horse is heavier and stronger than he was going to the German Derby (when he was just denied on the line). I think he’s just maturing into a very good horse,”
