Heavens Gate obliges in the €300,000 Irish EBF Ballyhane Stakes

Aidan O'Brien landed the €300,000 Irish EBF Ballyhane Stakes for the second time in five years when the 102-rated Heavens Gate scored a ready success at Naas on Bank Holiday Monday.

A 4/6 favourite under Ryan Moore after taking third place in the Group 2 Duchess Of Cambridge Stakes at Newmarket last month, she raced up with the pace and was well on top from over a furlong from the finish as she beat Gavin Cromwell’s 10/1 shot Fiery Lucy by a length and a quarter with British challenger Li Ban half a length away in third place.

The first race had gone the way of the Paddy Twomey-trained Firebird which justified her short odds with a runaway success in the near six-furlong winners’ race.

A 1/14 favourite under Billy Lee, she added to a recent Cork win when scoring a six and a half-length win over Jessica Harrington’s 7/1 chance Matter Of Fact. Martin Hassett and his grand-nephew Wayne combined to take the seven-furlong handicap with the five-year-old Secret Magician.

At odds of 11/2, he recorded his third career success when seeing off the challenge of the Tom McCourt-trained Dynamic Force by half a length.