Little Big Bear got off the mark at the second attempt when taking the opening Irish Stallion Farms EBF Maiden at Naas on Saturday.
Beaten just a short head on debut at the Curragh, the imposing Aidan O’Brien-trained son of No Nay Never tracked the eventual second Alexis Zorba throughout the five-furlong contest, before hitting full flight in the final furlong to win a hard-held three lengths at odds of 4-9.
Betfair shortened the Ballydoyle youngster into 6-1 from 10-1 for the Coventry Stakes at Royal Ascot, and winning jockey Seamie Heffernan believes Little Big Bear is a talented operator.
Just like a piece of work for odds-on juvenile Little Big Bear at @NaasRacecourse!Royal Ascot presumably next for the Aidan O'Brien-trained son of No Nay Never, although third-home Keepupwithmyempire will be going into notebooks too after this debut. pic.twitter.com/AW92o9oZB5
— Racing TV (@RacingTV) May 7, 2022
“He’s a massive big colt with loads of pace. He finished out well and hopefully he keeps progressing,” he said.
“I was always comfortable, he was the class horse in the race and he finished well.
“He started at six and went back to five, he has buckets of pace but he relaxes.
“They need to progress from run to run and be up for the fight. He ticks all the boxes at the moment.”
