Blazing keeps the Tempo up for long enough

She was easy enough in the market and one could see why as Blazing Tempo just about got the job done in the Irish Stallion Farms European Breeders Fund Mares Hurdle at Kilbeggan.

As ever the inside berth is all important in the closing stages at this venue and Emmet Mullins had it on the 2011 Galway Plate heroine.

Course-specialist Annie Other looked a huge threat on the run to the last but she got it wrong at that final obstacle. So too did Blazing Tempo, but to a lesser extent. Definite Class got a second wind at about this stage too and she came home well on the outer for third. A neck and the same were the distances between the principals.

Mullins was riding this mare for his uncle Willie and owner Susannah Ricci and he said: "She wasn't really travelling early on and two miles three is short enough for her nowadays.

"She jumped great though which was a big help.

"She was good today compared to the Galway Hurdle (tailed off there when fancied by many) and when she got to the front she stuck her head down and battled all the way to the line.

"She got a great leap two out and I was always holding on – I was very happy with her.

"The Galway Hurdle was a complete write-off, nobody knows what happened there.

"She's always been better over fences though and hopefully she continues in this sort of form into the winter." (GC & EM)