Well-fancied Boats takes the Sprint

The well-fancied Burn The Boats landed a gamble as he took the Paddy Power Sprint under Gary Carroll for Ger Lyons.

The four-year-old son of Big Bad Bob caught many peoples eye on his last start, when he finished fifth behind Fiesolana in a valuable handicap over the course on Guineas weekend.

He opened at 11/1 on-track this afternoon, but was well-supported and went off the 7/1 joint favourite.

The brown gelding, who recorded his only previous success in a claimer at Dundalk in January, chased the leaders in the early stages and was sixth at the halfway stage.

He stayed on well inside the final furlong, hitting the front in the closing stages and going on to score by three parts of a length at the line.

UK raider Whozthecat (20/1) finished second under ten pound claimer Luke Leadbitter, while Ger Lyons also had the third, as Joe Eile (20/1) was a further half a length back under Emmett McNamara. Dick Bos (10/1) completed the placings a short head back in fourth under Luke Dempsey, while the other joint favourite Mississippi finished in sixth.

Ger Lyons said afterwards: "The horses are in great order at the moment. The fellow is owned by David Spratt who is a good pal of mine but he is not too well at the moment, so this is a good tonic for him.

"We knew we wouldn’t get into the big races at Royal Ascot with him so we decided to aim him at this.

"He can go anywhere from six furlongs to a mile. The penny has not really dropped with him and he will learn a lot from today. He he has little or no racing done."

Additional reporting by Alan Magee