Feane lands first Stakes victory in Naas

Bounce The Blues put in a professional performance on her fourth start to take Listed honours at Naas.

Kevin Manning ’s mount raced in rear of the 11 runners for this seven-furlong contest and began to make headway on the outer in the final quarter of a mile.

Her progress continued as she took a narrow lead inside the final furlong, and powered home through the soft ground to fend off a surging Soul Search

The winner obliged at 20/1 by half a length from the 7/2 runner-up. Baraniya was a length and a quarter further away in third at 7/1.

Trainer Johnny Feane said: “It’s great that she won. She has buckets of pace for seven furlongs and we could even drop her back to six. It was a bit of a shot in the dark but we thought she was very good at home.

“Her form has worked out well from the last day, so we said we’d take a pop and it has all worked out great.

“That’s my first Stakes winner. I’ve had a good few placed but that’s the first Stakes winner.”

Bounce The Blues was following up on a fillies’ maiden success over course and distance where she beat So Wonderful into second. That rival franked the form in Listed company at Killarney on Friday. So Wonderful was also due to contest this race, but was a non runner due to being off feed.

Additional reporting by Alan Magee