Chicago May toughs it out from the front

Chicago May gave Ger Lyons back-to-back Birdcatcher's when making virtually all in Naas.

The 11/2 shot kept finding for Colin Keane (also on Moonlight Bay for Lyons in last year's renewal) on the rail to close out the race by three parts of a length from Dandys Ocean (12/1 from 16/1). Recon Mission the 5/1 favourite, could make no impression on the winner and had to settle for third.

Ger Lyons said: “She's not easy, she's very difficult at home.

“Colin rides her most days and it's nothing more than he deserves for having the hardship of riding her at home.

“She's very strong and I actually told the owners that I thought she had cheap speed, that she was all show and didn't have a whole lot to back it up.

“You can't argue with the two runs she's had for me. She ran into a better horse on the day in Dundalk and did it the hard way there today.

“She won here over seven and I don't know how she got seven with the way she is training. The idea was to bounce her out, don't fight her, and she was all guts there today.

“We thought maybe the rain that got into the ground would even stop her. We were so negative it wasn't right and all credit to the filly. She's good, she's tough and she's hardy.

“She'll go home now and hopefully she'll strengthen up to be a black-type filly. If she's not a black-type filly here we have the option of sending her to America.”

Additional reporting by Gary Carson