June in April at Tramore Andrew McNamara stepped in for the ride on Meitheamh (the Irish word for June) after Ben Dalton's fall from Prince Of Leisure at Wexford last night and the Limerick jockey delivered his mount with perfect timing to land the Irish Stallion Farms European Breeders Fund Mares Maiden Hurdle at Tramore. Backed from 9s into 7s on track, the victorious daughter of Beneficial came through on the inner between the last two, to tackle the front-running favourite, Turica. She eventually proved stronger than the market-leader up the run-in to score by two and a quarter lengths. The nicely-backed Miss Palm (6s this morning into 7/2) came home well for third, a short-head behind whilst the 'nibbled-at' Kalico Kalista (25s this morning into 10s) was two and three parts of a length back in fourth. Maurice Phelan trains Meitheamh for his brother Eamonn and he said: "That was not before time being an eight-year-old now. I only have her a couple of months. "She was very free up the North (when fifth at Downpatrick). The hood (1st time) helped her in that respect. "She's very genuine and might run in another hurdle but she's a good jumper and she'll go over fences too." (DM & EM)
