Nurse Dee's win at Wolverhampton gave racing fans reason to smile and reflect this afternoon.
The 14/1 winner is named after a nurse at Dublin's St Vincent's Hospital who helped legendary late former jockey Pat Smullen during his cancer battle.
Smullen passed away in September at the age of 43 having fought pancreatic cancer since first being diagnosed with the illness in March 2018.
Trainer Richard Fahey paid tribute to both Smullen and the nurse he described as an 'amazing lady' in a tweet to mark the poignant victory.
Fahey tweeted: "Well done 'Nurse Dee'. Quite a poignant winner. She was named by Pat Smullen after nurse Dee who looked after him through his illness. Always in our thoughts Pat. Congratulations to Nurse Dee, the human one."
Nine-times champion jockey Smullen rode 1,845 winners in Ireland as well as 47 in Britain and won 11 Classic races during a stellar quarter-century in the saddle.
In a Late Late Show interview with Ryan Tubridy in 2019, brave Smullen heaped praise on the nurse who he credited with changing his attitude towards his battle with illness.
"Dee is an amazing lady," he said
"She came in and sat down at the end of the bed and gave me a proper pep talk and told me that we were on a path and that there was no looking back and that we were gonna go forward and get through this.
"The word ‘we’ sticks in my mind. It wasn’t that I had to do it, we were going to do it.
"That absolutely changed my mindset and put my mind to thinking that I just had to get stuck in and fight this."
Smullen helped to raise over €2.5m for Cancer Trials Ireland during his battle with the disease and before his sad passing four months ago, which sent the racing community into mourning.
