Byrnes beats bookies with another Bumper bashing

Horses from Charles Byrnes' Limerick yard walloped bookmakers for the second successive Saturday at Gowran today as another winning newcomer, and as it transpired appropriately named, Mary B (11/8f) took flight to land the concluding EBF Ronan Lawlor Memorial Bumper.

Byrnes' Balliniska Band was the heavily backed winning bumper debutante at Naas last Saturday and the trainer repeated the dose for bookmakers with Mary B, who was similarly well supported throughout this afternoon to make a winning debut for jockey Richie Deegan.

The daughter of Vinnie Roe was initially weak in early-morning activity, but a lunchtime gamble quickly gained traction and having been generally a 5/1 chance, that had been cut to 9/4 for the opening show on-track.

Mary B was eventually returned the clear 5/4 favourite and duly beat off the Willie Mullins trained runner-up Ifyoucatchmenow by four and a half lengths.

Byrnes later revealed the not-insignificant matter of the winner's name, saying “my mother passed away before Christmas and we called her after my mother so it was a bit of a pressure one!”

The three-time Cheltenham Festival winning trainer added “she worked well one day in Thurles and has had plenty of days away so she knew her job well. She wouldn’t be the fastest in the world but she loves soft ground.”

“She’s home-bred and the first three out of the mare are after winning now.”

Quotes from Alan Magee