Lyons' Andre Amar lands Dundalk's opener

The Ger Lyons trained Andre Amar made a winning debut in the opening Irish Stallion Farms EBF Maiden at Dundalk today, scoring in a somewhat dramatic race under jockey Gary Carroll.

All five runners were making their respective debuts in the race and while Andre Amar missed the break, he made progress on the outer two furlongs out. Eventual runner-up Servalan had raced a little keen and was crucially short of room and checked in her run over a furlong out before running on well late-on to get to within a half length of Andre Amar at the line.

Afterwards Lyons said “Gary (Carroll) said he was slow away and looked about and they didn't go quick. He loved the way he quickened and then he couldn't pull him up. He ran out real strong and it was like he just woke up after the race.

"He's babyish as ours are, he wouldn't be as professional as the one that ran here on Wednesday (Invasion Day).

"On a performance like that, with natural improvement, you'd like to be thinking of something like the Windsor Castle but we'll worry about that down the road.

"It was a good, honest performance. Probably Gary got first run on Colm (O'Donoghue on runner-up Servalan) on the day so you wouldn't get carried away but there should be plenty of improvement."

Quotes from Michael Graham