Brunelle gets going late to land opener on debut

The Ger Lyons-trained Brunelle showed a good attitude to chase down For The Trees and make a winning debut in the opening Foran Equine Irish EBF Auction Maiden at Leopardstown this afternoon.

For The Trees looked to have matters under control after kicking a few lengths clear early in the straight.

Wayne Lordan got a good tune from the well-backed Kodiac filly (9/2 in morning into 3/1 favourite) inside the final furlong and she found another gear to get on top close home to score by half a length.

The Anamoine-owned winner was “bought back in” for only €800 as a yearling.

“It was grand and we like her. We thought with the 8-6 there was no point not using the weight,” said Lyons.

'She's very similar to the one that ran last night and it would be a good horse to give her a good amount of weight. The top horse had to give her a stone.

“We knew she was professional and if she didn't get stage fright or something like that we expected her to run at least in the money.

“It's nice to give Wayne a winner, it's disappointing that the men who do all the hard work didn't get a winner on her but that's part of the job. We availed of the weight.

“Wayne said he likes her. With normal improvement, let's not get carried away, we'll see where she ends up. She's probably better than that grade.

“She'll get further and Wayne said she woke up coming back. I said to him 'don't beat her up now' as it was her first day on grass.

“It's the usual rules, if you can't win today make sure you win the next day. I would rather that he finished second that punish her to win that.

“She only got one smack. She knew she's after having a day out and the penny only dropped with cantering back in. It was smart and hopefully she'll keep progressing.”