Ice off the mark down at six

The Ger Lyons-trained Apricot Ice bagged her maiden at the Curragh this afternoon on her first start over six furlongs.

The Bated Breath filly had been runner-up on three of her first four starts, all over seven furlongs, and gained a deserved breakthrough when making all in the James Nolan's Bar Kildare Irish EBF Maiden.

Colin Keane had a willing partner in the closing stages as the 5/2 shot recorded a three-parts-of-a-length win over Ojw Legacy

“She got the job done. We obviously thought a bit of her, and she's been letting us down, and I think we're between trips with her,” said Lyons.

“You can see that she's on the leg and whether it's immaturity or not.

“It took a good colt to beat her in Leopardstown but I didn't think we hit the line strong so I took the view that we'd come back here and have a punt at six on a proper track.

“We hoped that there were no sneaky ones in there that hadn't run. Colin said of what we knew of the ones that had run we should be winning.

“That's the maiden box ticked, we'll go home and let her mature now.

“I thought she parked but she got it done. Let's give her the benefit of the doubt that she's a little bit on the immature side but at the minute I'd have a question mark over her trip.”