Native Speaker takes Mayo National for de Bromhead and O'Keeffe Native Speaker made most of the running under Darragh O’Keeffe and stayed on strongly in the closing stages to land the €100,000 McHale Mayo National Handicap Chase at Ballinrobe. The Henry de Bromhead-trained gelding has been lightly raced since beaten less than five lengths in the Galway Blazers last summer and bounced out here as fresh as paint off a five-month break. Conyers Hill appeared a threat when getting into contention before three out, but Native Speaker took control after the penultimate fence and the 12/1 shot stayed on strongly on the run-in to beat that rival by seven lengths. Ol Man Dingle was a further three and a half lengths away in third with Mousey Brown completing the places in fourth. De Bromhead was represented by Robbie Power who said, “He got a good start and Darragh soon had him in a lovely rhythm and he jumped from fence to fence. “Henry felt he had him in a good place at home and Darragh was fairly confident about his chances coming up in the car. “He wanted to be positive on him, because that's how he's won his races in the past. He needs good ground and obviously goes well fresh." Western Fold won this race last year before going on to land the Galway Plate and Power added, “We'll see what the handicapper does. If it comes up good at Galway, the Plate would come into consideration if he had a chance of getting into the race.” Quotes by Mark Nunan
