Empress Of Beauty (centre) and Billy Lee © Photo Healy Racing
Empress Of Beauty looks to have wintered well and gained valuable black type when taking the Listed Irish Stallion Farms EBF Victor McCalmont Memorial Stakes at Gowran Park.
The 10/11 favourite Goldana bounced out of the stalls and made the running in this extended nine-furlong event but was headed well over a furlong out by the smooth travelling Empress Of Beauty.
The four-year-old daughter of Le Havre kept on well for Billy Lee inside the final furlong but the line came just in time as the odds-on favourite rallied strongly to get within a short-head.
The pair pulled two and a half lengths ahead of Mexicali Rose in third.
Lee was completing a double having earlier been on the mark aboard Coll Mocheallog.
Winning trainer Henry de Bromhead said, “We were hoping for a good run. She’s a big girl and I’d say she just had enough at the end of last season.
“She had been working well this year and it was lovely to see her do it on ground that she wouldn’t be too keen on.
“She is a lot stronger this year. She’s a big, scopey filly and we just felt that she fell away a bit last year. She is really filling her frame out now and this year could be really exciting now.”
