Espion Du Chenet with (left to right) rider Ryan Treacy, owner Nicky Teehan and trainer Louise Lyons© Photo Healy Racing
The Naas Nursery Of Champions Handicap Chase went to Espion Du Chenet (5/1 fav, from 11/1 in the morning) with successful jockey Ryan Treacy riding out his 3lb claim in the process.
The 6-year-old French-bred, a hurdles winner at three around Auteuil, came here on the back of an encouraging handicap debut third at Thurles and travelled well before going away in the final furlong for a three length victory from Shopping Around (13/2). De Bennette (12/1) and The Chapel Field (15/2) completed the placings.
It was a first track success for winning trainer Louise Lyons, who’s based at Bluegate Stud in Kilmanagh, Co. Kilkenny along with her partner and winning owner Nicky Teehan, and she commented: “He’s come on from his last few runs. He was a bit of a tearaway but the more he’s done he’s understanding his job and cooling down a bit.
“I ride him every day on the gallops and he goes away two days a week to work. He’s settled more and more at home and I do a lot of jumping with him.
“I felt the two fences out in the straight (low-lying sun) was a plus as we knew he had that bit of speed at the end.
“I’m from England originally and I used to do a lot of showing horses. I represented Ireland at the Olympics in 2008 in eventing and I recently rode Don Cossack in a showing class. He’s like a Ferrari and I was so privileged to get the ride on him.
“We were pretraining horses that we hadn’t sold and we had horses like Shanahan's Turn and Raya Time.”
Additional reporting by Alan Magee
