WATCH: Limerick jockey scores thrilling win at Galway Summer Festival

LIMERICK jockey Chris Hayes scored a thrilling success on Day 2 of the big Galway Summer Festival on Tuesday.

Shanagolden jockey Hayes landed the Colm Quinn BMW Irish EBF (Fillies) Maiden aboard the Dermot Weld-trained Tahiyra.

The winner, returned at odds of 7/2, proved an impressive five and a half lengths too good for runner-up, odds-on favourite Dower House.

Tahiyra hit the front on the turn for home at Ballybrit and pulled well clear of her rivals to score an impressive success.

Winning trainer Weld brought his tally of wins in this particular race to 15 of the last 33 renewals.

The two-year-old is a half-sister to the trainer’s brilliant racemare Tarnawa, who finished third in the same race on her introduction in 2018 before going on to win three Group Ones and take second in last year’s Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe.

It might be a little early to suggest Tahiyra can scale those heights, but she certainly looks to have inherited a good portion of her sibling’s ability judged on her six-and-a-half-length romp under Hayes, prompting Paddy Power to give her a 20-1 quote for next year’s 1000 Guineas.

“She’d been working very well and I was pleased with her. She’s a slightly smaller edition than Tarnawa, her brilliant sister. She’s done everything right,” said Weld.

“At this stage she probably has more pace than Tarnawa, she’s by Siyouni so you’d expect that.

“Let’s hope she has the wonderful courage and constitution that Tarnawa had, who was a multiple Group One winner around the world for me.

“This filly is very talented in her own right. She has a lot of the characteristics of her sister, she’s very similar in many ways and she showed immediate talent.

“We’ll see how she comes out of her race, but she’ll go at stakes level next time.”

The feature race on Tuesday evening, the Colm Quinn BMW Mile Handicap, went to 6/1 shot Magic Chegaga.

Representing fledgling trainer Brian Duffy, the recent Curragh runner-up went one better under a power-packed rider from champion jockey Colin Keane and pick up the lion’s share of €120,000.

Duffy revealed the winner’s horsebox had broken down on the way to the racing: “We were travelling our two horses in two different boxes and one of them overheated so we ended up getting into a churchyard in Rochfortbridge and we had no choice but to throw them in together.

The attendance at Ballybrit on day two of the Galway festival came to 13,132.