Zira gets up close home to land the bumper The David Harry Kelly trained Railway Zira caused a bit of an upset in the bumper at Killarney as she scored on her debut at the odds of 10/1 under Pa King. The 4yo daughter of Westerner was held up towards the rear for most of the race before she made headway from four furlongs out. She was ridden on the outer in third, two furlongs from home and she stayed on best to lead close home scoring by half a length at the line. The 2/1 favourite Klepht for Tom and Patrick Mullins briefly led under a furlong out but had no response when passed by the winner close home. The Mikey O’Connor trained and ridden newcomer Smiler (11/4) put in a game front running display but he had nothing in reserves when passed with less than a furlong left to go. The winning Fethard, Co Tipperary based trainer said afterwards: “She will learn an awful lot from that. I couldn’t get her on grass and as a result she was very green. "We think a lot of her and we might go for a winners bumper at Galway with her now." Kelly was recording his second training success with Hilltop Tommy being his first winner when he won a bumper at Cork in May. (On-course reporting by Alan Magee)
