Copacabana Sands

Copacabana Sands was unlucky in the Irish EBF Auction Series Final at Naas on Sunday. Dropped in early on from her outside draw in stall 16, she was stone last as they turned for home as Danny Sheehy rode her for luck. She travelled really well up the home straight and, every time a gap opened, she was able to move into it. Still tanking as they passed the two-furlong pole, she got a gap on the run to the furlong pole and moved into seventh place, but her rider had to sit and suffer until deep inside the final furlong, when she got a gap on the rail and picked up well. She closed on the leaders all the way to the line, getting up for third place in the end, just a length behind the winner Fiona Maccoul. She was in front six strides past the winning line.

This was a race in which the pace held up well, the winner and runner-up, Bodhi Bear, both raced prominently from early. Copacabana Sands did well to get as close as she did from the rear and, if she had enjoyed a better run through, she probably would have won. Diego Dias' filly was a big price too, she had finished behind Saint Brandon and Gangsta Man and Red Scarlet in a maiden at Down Royal in September, but she obviously improved on that here in reversing places with those three rivals. This was just her fourth run, she is a keen-going sort, she obviously enjoyed being held up and passing horses, and, bred for further than this, out of a half-sister to Fillies' Mile winner Red Bloom, it will be interesting to chart her progress from here.

Naas, 13^th October 2024