Sainte Dona opened her account in some style when making all for a facile victory in the Irish Stallion Farms EBF Mares Maiden Hurdle at Thurles.

Trained by Tom Cooper and ridden by his son Bryan, the five-year-old filled the runner-up spot on two of her previous three starts and was just denied at Clonmel last time.

The 2/1 favourite built up a huge lead on the final circuit of this 2m7f event and was able to pop the last before cruising home on the run-in to still record a 25 lengths winning verdict. Glorious Singer took the runner-up spot with Caremuchmore in third.

Tom Cooper said, "The plan was to jump out and make it. She might have got a bit of a freebie but still she kept going and won 25 lengths. She had plenty left and started to idle a bit and the third-last being taken out didn't help either.

"We knew the step up in trip was a big thing to her and she is a real staying mare, by a great sire.

"She is crying out for a fence and would definitely get blacktype over fences but whether or not she'll get it over hurdles I don't know. There aren't a lot of staying races for novice mares for her but we could see what handicap mark she gets as that could be another option."

He added "I actually got a present of her from Andrew Brooks who had plenty horses in pre-training with me but was pulling the plug and left me the mare."

Quotes by Tom Weekes