Cyril Murphy saddles another winner, Gold Charm in a Colonial Stakes

Details: August 11, 2023; By SARA CAVANAGH

NEW KENT, Va.--Cyril Murphy is certainly on a roll, saddling Gold Charm (Ire) to win the $75,000, 2 1/4 mile Randolph D. Rouse Filly and Mare Hurdle Stakes at Colonial Downs on Friday,Aug. 11.

Cyril MurphyThat followed his training two stakes winners at Saratoga, McTigue in the Kiser Novice Stakes and Belfast Banter in the G1 Smithwick.

All three are owned by Irv Naylor.

Gold Charm, ridden by Harry Beswick, ran last in the seven horse field until beginning to make her move at the second to last fence on the backside, catching Cainudothetwist in the stretch and going on to win by three lengths in 4:02.57.

Cainudothetwist, trained by Arch Kingsley, was second with Bercasa (Ire), trained by Kathy Neilson third.

"You never get tired of winning," said Murphy. "You don't win anything for a while and then all of a sudden they come in droves."

Gold Charm, a 4-year-old, ran in handicaps in England in 2021 and 2022, placing fairly consistently but without a win.

"WE BOUGHT Gold Charm last October," said Murphy. "We took our time with her. She ran second in a maiden special weight at Radnor and then won a maiden race at Colonial. So we thought we'd take a chance with her here today."

"We like her a lot at home, but her maiden win was run much slower than this race," he said. "She took that step forward nicely. We'll let her tell us what she wants to do next."

"I think this filly might do well with more time between races," said Murphy. "There's another filly race here in a few weeks. And we're looking at the filly race at Far Hills. I think she'd like the 2 miles at a hunt meet. Maybe she'll go in both."

Todd Wyatt saddled Mrs.S.K. Johnston's Pure Courage, ridden by Elizabeth Scully, to win the $44,000 Maiden Special Weight by 2 1/4 lengths over Abaan, trained by Kate Dalton and Imperial Assassin, trained by Neilson, finishing in 4:02.95.

This was the fifth start for Pure Courage over fences after a second, two thirds and a fourth in maiden races following his flat career where he was an allowance winner.

Neil Morris saddled Kinross Corporation's Junonia to win the $30,000Handicap by 3 lengths over New Appointment, trained by Keri Brion and Seismic, also trained by Morris, finishing in 4:09.91.

Junonia has been running over fences since 2019 with four previous wins, two in claiming races and two in handicaps.