Tea Rose Victory For Pearls

Pearls swooped to land the Group Two Coolmore Tea Rose Stakes over seven furlongs at Royal Randwick, Australia, on Saturday, September 19.

The three-year-old Exceed And Excel filly, trained by John O'Shea and the mount of Sam Clipperton, raced in seventh of the 10 runners as stable companion Ottoman, with James McDonald up, took them along.

Pearls dropped back to eighth before coming with a strong run in the straight to lead just inside the final furlong from Ottoman whose stamina gave way.

She held on well by from Honesta by a neck, with the first two a length and three quarters ahead of the third Kimberley Star, with Ottoman fading to seventh.

Pearls won in 1m 24.44s on soft ground.

John O'Shea said: "We hoped Pearls would run like that today. I was not perturbed by the ground and most importantly she is a quality filly.

"She had a good preparation and was in wonderful order. She was very excitable as a young filly and physically not there so we had to be patient with her.

"When she told us she was ready, we took her to the races.

"She had a lovely spot in the run today, got to the lead a bit quicker than we wanted but dug deep to hang onto her advantage. A great performance.

"The Flight Stakes (Group One, 1m, October 3, Royal Randwick) would be the natural progression as she should run a strong mile.

"We will take her home and hope she comes out of this race well.

"Ottoman just doesn't run past 1,200 metres so her future races will be restricted to the shorter trips."

Sam Clipperton added: "These royal blue silks have been very good to me.

"John O'Shea and the team had a lot of faith in Pearls' ability - she is very well bred and is the ultimate professional.

"She has really come of age and is a lovely mature type - a very good filly.

"I had a lovely run - they rolled along in a nice tempo and I pressed the button on her too early as she was in front a long way out but, to my filly's credit, she did the job well."