McGuinness works his magic with Pretreville

French import lands Group Three prize.

Pretreville provided trainer Ado McGuinness with another big-race victory in the Group Three Amethyst Stakes at Leopardstown.

The County Dublin-based trainer has enjoyed a memorable 12 months, thanks in chief to the exploits of his dual Group One-winning sprinter A Case Of You.

A winner at Dundalk earlier in the year, Pretreville had since finished second in Doha and in the Listed Heritage Stakes at Leopardstown a month ago.

The seven-year-old was an 11-1 shot returning to the Foxrock venue for this one-mile contest and raised his game to see off Aidan O’Brien’s hat-trick seeking 2-1 favourite Ivy League by a length and three-quarters in the hands of Ronan Whelan.

McGuinness said: “The plan was to come here after he ran a very good race the last day. It was a field of good horses and I suppose you could make a case for the six horses today.

“He was very impressive and Ronan gave him a world class ride, he dictated.

“We might drop him back to seven furlongs and we might look at Royal Ascot, we’re not exactly sure.

“He was a 112 or 113 horse at one stage in France so he could head back up towards that. He’s a very classy horse and a privilege to have.

“He’s a horse that doesn’t need a lot of running either, we don’t like to dip him too many times. It’ll probably be at least three or four weeks before you see him again and maybe even six weeks.”

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