A terrific staying effort by Bennett Racing 5yo mare Maid Of Iron after her easy win on Tuesday at Stoney Creek. Racing 4th up for the Ciaron Maher Dave Eustace Stable the mare had looked to be disinterested in racing her last couple of runs. Taken back to 64 Grade at Stoney Creek and out to the 2100m distance saw a form reversal and a dominant win. Ridden by Patrick Moloney the 5yo daughter of Dundeel jumped ok and had a perfect sit on rails, behind speed. During the run she stayed 3 lens back off the fence and started to work into the race from 600m. Patrick peeled Maid Of Iron 3 wide straightening up and quickly joined in. She wanted to lay in when taking over the last 150m but with Patrick really only using hands and heels final stages, she proved too strong in what was a tough staying win by 1.75L and carrying the decent weight of 59 kgs. The mare seemed to have a bit of a think about it in the straight but she was just too classy.
A great training effort by Ciaron and Dave and their Team at Fingal as the mare had been slow to come to hand this prep. She did seem to have her chances at most of her runs this time in. Dave thought that her effort today may give the mare confidence to go on with the job and would look for a similar race. It was Maid Of Iron’s first win since Dec ’21 at Moonee Valley and took her record to 19 starts 4 wins and a 3rd earnings of $112,600.
As a 3yo Maid Of Iron had certainly showed quite a bit of ability as her win at Moonee Valley indicated but she lost a bit of form over the next 12 months.
A 82.5k purchase from the 2019 Magic Millions Sale, Maid Of Iron is a daughter of Encosta De Lago’s Gr3 pl 2yo Iron Lace. As a metropolitan winning daughter of leading sire Dundeel, Maid Of Iron can only now enhance her value when she finally retires to stud. For now the mare will keep racing now she has hit form.
Congratulations to all owners who had the faith in Maid Of Iron to bounce back and thankyou to Team Maher / Eustace for their patience with the mare.
GREAT STAYING EFFORT BY MAID OF IRON
