Rockstown Girl makes a taking debut for McCann

Rockstown Girl swept through to win the ladies' bumper at Roscommon in impressive fashion on debut.

The four-year-old filly raced towards the rear and was ridden by Aine O'Connor to make headway turning for home.

She made good headway to close on the leaders inside the final quarter of a mile and readily surged to the front over a furlong out.

The Iffraaj filly moved clear in the final 150 yards and powered home by six lengths at 18/1. Phils Choice had no answers in second at 7/2 from 7/1. Toucan Do (10/1) came home third, beaten nine lengths by the winner.

"We've always loved her,” said trainer Anthony McCann.

“She was supposed to go for a bumper last year, Jonathan Moore was very sweet on her and we were supposed to go to England but she suffered a hairline fracture in her last piece of work.

“We gave her the time off, Avril took her home, and she went into Gillian Scott's for pre-training just after Christmas. She did a fantastic job with her and she came to me eight weeks ago.

“She's a very nice filly and I sourced her last year off a friend and I kept a share in her myself.”

When asked if she was for sale he added: “Everything is for sale! She's a very nice filly to go forward with, though, and we want good horses in the yard.

“Aine gave her a peach of a ride. I thought she was maybe a little bit far out the back at one stage, but she said the minute she gave her a squeeze she was like a jet kicking in.”

Additional reporting by Gary Carson