'More mannerly' Tai Tam Bay getting the hang of things

Tai Tam Bay put her rivals firmly in their place in race two at Naas. Heavenly Being in the first-time visor, soon shot clear under Shane Foley and ran freely. When the petrol inevitably began to dwindle a furlong and a-half down, Tai Tam Bay was perfectly placed in second to sweep to the front over a furlong from home.

She began to assert for Chris Hayes in the final furlong and readily ran on by a widening four and a-half lengths at 6/1. Velvet Skies came through for second at 15/2 and was a neck up on 14/1 shot Barley Cove

Eddie Harty said: “She’s very, very tough and last year she was almost too tough. She just wanted to fight everything.

“I said we’d just drop her back to six for this and let her skip along and enjoy herself. Shane (Foley on Heavenly Being) has half-bolted and did us a favour as we got a nice tow off that and she’s won well.

“She’s a nicely bred New Bay filly and hopefully that is not the end of it.

“We spent the whole winter trying to get her to settle and she’s more mannerly now.”

Additional reporting by Alan Magee