William F Browne shows battling qualities to land Claimer

The Ger Lyons trained William F Browne battled back well inside the final furlong to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat to land the Irish Stallion Farms EBF Claiming Maiden at Naas.

Sent off 6/5f, the Arizona gelding had to work hard under Colin Keane before eventually gaining a neck win over Mighty Day

In a race where a trio of runners pulled clear of the remainder, William F Browne was forced to pull out all the stops to see off both Mighty Day and eventual third Wonderfulwonderful

Champion jockey Keane was seen at his strongest on the gelding who had finished runner-up on his most recent start at Roscommon last month.

“He's named after Willie Browne who I bought him off,” said Ger Lyons.

“We were walking around the parade ring at the sales and if you look at this horse he's gorgeous on one side and then on the other side he's got a luminous white eye.

“Me and Kerry are looking at him and I said 'he's lovely, he'll do me — he's my type of horse' and then he comes around again and I go 'Holy God!'.

“Unknown to me Willie Browne was beside me and asked what was wrong. I said 'I can't do white eyes Willie as it never works for me'. He said 'don't be so stupid'.

“I said to him I'd buy him to prove it wrong and if I did I'd call him Willie 'effing' Browne. When the hammer dropped he came running over to me and he said 'do me a favour, add a bit of class to it and call it William!'

“So that's where William F Browne came from. It cost me £60,000 to prove a point.”

Additional reporting by Gary Carson.