Covert Love gives Palmer first Group 1 win in Irish Oaks

Covert Love won the biggest race of her career and gave trainer Hugo Palmer the biggest win of his when capturing the Group 1 Irish Oaks by 1 3/4 lengths over Jack Naylor on Saturday at The Curragh.

Supplemented into the race by her owners, the Fomo Syndicate, at a cost of more than $43,000, Covert Love made the gamble pay off, coming away with a victory while racing for the first time in a group stakes of any sort. Fifth in her only race at 2, Covert Love had won three races in 2015 entering the Irish Oaks but figured to be tested for class Saturday.

Covert Love, with Pat Smullen up, ran up to contest the early pace, but Together Forever seized the lead and drew clear to tow a strung-out field along, several lengths ahead of the rest of the pack while setting what appeared to be a strong pace.

Together Forever still had the lead coming into the homestraight, but her energy began waning with a quarter-mile left, and she was reeled in over the final furlong by the pursuing pack. Smullen came between horses with Covert Love and pushed clear of Jack Naylor and race favorite Curvy, the former edging the latter for the place. The well-backed Words lagged far behind the early leaders and finished unplaced after the mildest of rallies.

Palmer, an Englishman, won the first Group 1 of his career, while Covert Love, by Azamour, now has four wins from five starts, and, surprisingly, given the obscurity in which she started the year, a classic win on her résumé.