Miss Lamai leads successful British raid on Naas prizes

PA Sport Reporters
July 24, 2024 5:57 pm

Nighteyes another to pick up ;Listed honours.

Miss Lamai confirmed the promise of her fine run in the Queen Mary Stakes to take Listed honours at Naas for Karl Burke and Clifford Lee.

Her fourth at the Royal meeting made her the one to beat in the five-furlong Arqana Irish EBF Marwell Stakes and she was sent off accordingly at 10-11.

Always moving with real zest in the group on the stands side, she showed the right sort of attitude in the final furlong to account for Make Haste by a length and three-quarters.

Burke made the journey from his North Yorkshire base and was delighted with what he saw.

“She’s a good filly and she’s a tough filly as well,” he said.

“I thought if she ran up to either of her last two runs she had to be hard to beat, but you never know with two-year-old fillies so it’s great to get the job done.

“It’s huge for Chris (Hirst, owner), who lives in Thailand, as he’s building up a broodmare band.

“We walked the track a couple of hours before. When I watch Naas on TV they are always coming this side and it walked that way as well.

“I said to Cliff if they all go the other way to make sure he was on this side of the wing and make his challenge, but if they split definitely come this way.

“I think that helped. Half a furlong from the line I thought the far side might give us a race, but in the last 50 yards she went away again, which was great.”

He added: “She’s in the Lowther and we’ll discuss that. That’s the first time I’ve really seen her finish off her race.

“She got caught in the last 50 yards in the Marygate, she was always seeing too much daylight in that race and at Royal Ascot they were spread across the track and she never got any cover.

“I’ve always thought she’d be a better filly with a bit of cover and that’s worked out today.

“She won on soft first time out and has run on firm ground. I’d prefer her on this (yielding) ground, I think.”

It was a British Listed-raced double on the evening, as the David O’Meara-trained Nighteyes swamped everything with a devastating late burst in the Yeomanstown Stud Irish EBF Stakes, again up the seemingly favoured near side.

Danny Tudhope had to wait for a gap on the 100-30 favourite, but once it came and he was able to engage top gear his mount fairly powered home to take the spoils by three lengths from Over The Blues.

Tudhope said: “I didn’t plan on being that far back, but she was just a bit anxious in the stalls and she missed the beat a little bit. Probably in hindsight it wasn’t a bad thing.

“She’s definitely got ability this filly and she’s improving all the time. I’m delighted and it’s great for the owners.

“Even as a two-year-old we thought she was pretty good, things didn’t fall right for her and she bumped into one or two nice ones, but she’s progressed now into a lovely three-year-old filly.

“She’s done nothing wrong this season, she keeps improving and she’s deserves to win a Listed race.”