Whispering Waters and Duchess Ravenwaves rise together at the last© Photo Healy Racing
Whispering Waters took full advantage of the last fence exit of one of her rivals to provide Trevor Ryan with a birthday winner in the Arctic Tack Stud Mares Beginners Chase at Wexford. Duchess Ravenwaves appeared to be travelling best when falling upsides at the last, leaving Whispering Waters to be driven out by Ryan to score by three quarters of a length.
The 16/1 chance, formerly trained in Scotland by Iain Jardine, continued a good recent run for trainer Martin Brassil.
The 11/8 favourite Pepite De Belle kept on one paced in second, with long-time leader Turndownthevolume the same distance further away in third.
Ryan said, "I had her pre-training for a few months when she came back from England. I always thought she was grand and we got a few jobs done on her as she had a few little niggly problems, ulcers and such. She went on to Martin's around the beginning of February and he has done a great job with her since.
"The last day in Clonmel I was in trouble after a mile. I thought she would finish away but she just walked down to the second last and I had to pull her up. We thought she was fairly fit before that run.
"Coming here today we thought two miles would be fairly sharp for her and I honestly thought she didn't have any chance on the ground, but she just travelled everywhere and jumped. I couldn't believe how well I was going coming down the hill, I was expecting a few of them to come around me but she stayed galloping.
"She is family owned and it's great to get a win in the colours. It's my 27th birthday today as well. It's a fair shock now today."
(DM & AM)
