RUNAWAY DIOR added her name to a famous roll of honour when producing a superb front-running performance to win the Coral Brighton Belle Final at Hove on Saturday.

Outgunning her rivals from the get-go, the Paul Donovan-trained and Steve Lemar and John Wales-owned runner was always dominating matters on the outside after hot favourite Queen Shakira (Liz McNair) missed the break in her bid to make it back-to-back wins for the kennel after Queen Joni’s success last year.

Trapping smartly and racing to a slick 4.22sec sectional, Runaway Dior soon had her rivals under pressure in behind and, keeping up the gallop, the June 2022 daughter of Droopys Sydney and Crokers Princess was not for catching to claim the £10,000 first prize for connections in the Category One feature.

Dark Madam (Seamus Cahill) overcame first-bend crowding to keep on well for second, a length and a quarter behind the wInner, ahead of Queen Shakira in third. The winning time for the 515m trip was 30.19sec (+10).

In grabbing gold in the bitches-only showpiece, Runaway Dior breached a 15-year gap between trainer Donovan’s now two Category One successes. The St Leger-winning trainer, now based out of Central Park, struck gold with Droopys Bradley in the stayers’ Classic at Wimbledon in 2010.

However, Hove racing manager Rob Abrey, who was overseeing Saturday’s meeting which featured four finals in all, including the Coral Brighton Belle and Hove Puppy Cup, a Category Two competition, reckoned the victory in the showpiece event was worth the wait for the Central Park handler.

Abrey said: “I know Paul (Donovan) spent some time out of the game, but even so that’s some achievement spanning 15 years – and you’d have to say Runaway Dior thoroughly deserved her victory.

“It always looked a decent draw for her outside and, while they say draws win races, she’d run really well in the semi-finals off the front and had only been caught on the line. She’d made all in the heats the week before, so her leading was hardly a huge surprise. Even so, her consistency from the boxes has been really impressive.”

A two-time Galway winner, Runaway Dior made a winning debut for former trainer Teresa Dornan in A3 company at Crayford last August – and won her first three races at the Kent track, reaching the final of a maiden open-race event over 380m there. A winner also over 540m – both in A1 and OR – she later joined Donovan when Crayford closed.

“Runaway Dior clearly settled in well with Paul – that’s two wins for him in just three starts for her – and you’d have to say it was a pretty good training performance,” added Abrey. “She’d been off for much of the year before coming back for this competition but has done her connections proud on what was a cracking night for us here with four finals.”

In addition to the Coral Brighton Belle Final and Hove Puppy Cup, won by Maxine Locke’s Headford Asher, the track also hosted the Coral Sprint Trophy, in which Liz McNair’s Queen Sinead edged out Tullymurry Dylan (Maxine Locke), while the opening graded sweepstakes final, the Jenny Bunting Memorial Stakes, was won by Alfie Herbert’s Bunny Blaster.

The annual contest is run in memory of the track’s late home-finder.