Adriana leads Mullins clean sweep in mares

Willie Mullins looked to have a dominant hand the Mares Novice Hurdle Championship Final at Fairyhouse and so it proved as Adriana Des Mottes lead home a 1-2-3 for Closutton.

Paul Townend made all the running on the four-year-old and she galloped on strongly in the closing stages. The 15/8 favourite was a cosy seven-length winner of the two-and-a-half mile Grade One contest. Beluckyagain the 20/1 outsider of the yard's four runners, came through to grab the runner-up spot ahead of Urticaire Florishwells D'ete proved the disappointment, trailing in last.

“It's like having three winners with Adriana De Mottes winning. Beluckyagain finishing second in a Grade 1 is fantastic and also getting Grade 1 black-type for Urticaire,” said Mullins.

“Obviously Florishwells D'ete was a big disappointment and we'll have to see what went wrong with her.”

The winner had been brought down at the second flight by stable-mate Abbyssial at Cheltenham and Mullins said:- “It was probably lucky it happened so early at Cheltenham and you would wonder how either two of them would have run.

“We are lucky to get what we did today though and we're happy with that.

“She's a fine big mare. We'll see how she gets on at Punchestown now (Four-Year-Old Champion Hurdle).

“She's a big raw mare and might not take much more racing. She loves that ground but Punchestown is usually nice and safe.”