O'Brien's bear mauls Naas rivals

Touched off on last month's debut at the Curragh, the 4/9 favourite Little Big Bear readily went one better in the Irish Stallion Farms EBF Maiden.

Aidan O'Brien 's No Nay Never colt took over from Alexis Zorba inside the final furlong and raced awya to account for that rival by three lengths. It was another three and three quarter lengths back to Keepupwithmyempire in third.

Winning rider Seamie Heffernan said: "“He's a massive big colt with loads of pace. He finished out well and hopefully he keeps progressing.

“I was always comfortable, he was the class horse in the race and he finished well.

“He started at six and went back to five, he has buckets of pace but he relaxes.

“They need to progress from run to run and be up for the fight. He ticks all the boxes at the moment.”

Quotes from Gary Carson