Racing: Bath brings out the best in O'Neill

Dane O'Neill twice came from unpromising positions to land the spoils at Bath yesterday. Everything dropped right for Ringmoor Down as she came fast and late under O'Neill to take the feature race, the Lansdown Fillies Stakes.

The David Arbuthnot-trained five-year-old was switched widest of all down the home straight to landed the £30,000 Listed prize by three parts of a length from the three-year-old La Cucaracha.

"We have had this race in mind for about seven months but we weren't sure if she would handle dropping back to the minimum trip," Arbuthnot said.

"There are lots of Listed and Group Three races for us to think about. There are races in Rome, Cork, a Group Three at York in the summer, a Listed race at Nottingham - we could stick to just taking on the fillies all season if we wanted."

O'Neill's double was completed when Elgin Marbles made a winning debut in the juvenile maiden. Racing in the colours of Jumeirah Racing - the second-division string of the Maktoum operation - he got up in the last stride to deny The Crooked Ring by a short head.

"That's my first runner for 'The Firm', so that's not bad," Richard Hannon, the winning trainer, said. "He was green as grass and I can't believe he has got there."