Christie's mare has a Passion for the game Paidi's Passion battled gamely to land the Tramore Racecourse On Instagram Handicap Hurdle, completing a hat-trick in the process. Successful over flights at Downpatrick in August, the David Christie trained seven-year-old followed-up in style over fences at Ballinrobe last month. Tackling the smaller obstacles this afternoon, the Ocovango bay was sent off an 11/4 co-favourite, along with Pat Coyne and Lake Chad. Owned and bred by Sean Duke, the Darragh O'Keeffe ridden victor raced in second and was pushed along to lead before two out. Coming with a renewed effort, the front-running Natural Breeze joined the winner before the last and after a tussle on the run-in, three-parts of a length split the pair at the line. The runner-up was returned at 9/1 under Simon Torrens for Philip Rothwell, while Lake Chad and Pat Coyne were third and fifth respectively. "She is a bit odd but is very, very tough. She has her own way of doing everything," Fermanagh based Christie commented. "She is maturing and had been working really well since Ballinrobe. She even looked stronger in the paddock today. "The ground was the big worry. Darragh said it's tacky enough now as it's drying out. She toughed it out well. The good thing about her is over that trip and on that ground, she stays very well. "It was a big effort to come back from fences to hurdles and I'm delighted with her. She needs nice ground and we are probably running out of time with the ground now. It's great to see her strong enough to handle the ground today. "We will have a look and see what's available for her. We might run over fences again before leaving her off. "It took just four hours to get down here, it's no big deal on a good road."
