Queen Of The Sand lives up to her name

The Ger Lyons trained Queen Of The Sand put her experience to good use as she took the Irish Stallion Farms EBF Median Auction 2yo Fillies Maiden.

The daughter of Footstepsinthesand was making her sixth start this evening and her fourth on the all-weather.

She ran well on her last two outings over the course, finishing a close third behind Majestic Queen last month over seven furlongs and fourth last time out behind Longfield Lad earlier this month over six furlongs.

Racing back over seven furlongs tonight, she was sent off at 4/1 under Gary Carroll. She raced in third for much of the contest before coming with her challenge over a furlong out.

She stayed on well under pressure in the final furlong to lead near the line and just deny the Eddie Lynam trained newcomer Elusive Ice (8/1) by a head. Bainne who was 9/2 this morning with Paddy Powers and opened at 7/2 on-course, was backed into 11/4 favouritism at the off.

The Charlie Swan trained filly led inside the final furlong but couldn’t match the front pair and finished three parts of a length back in third under Billy Lee.

Ger Lyons said afterwards: "She is a very light filly. One of the things she has going for her is that she is pure honest and has guts.

"I thought she was a Nursery type filly all year and its nice for her owner (Declan Landy, who is from Kildare and is in the fencing business) that she now has a win as a 2yo on her pedigree.

"She will have a nice break now and come back over seven furlongs to a mile."

Sporting an impressive moustache in aid of Movember Lyons added: "It's coming off a minute after twelve!"

(Additional reporting by Alan Magee)