< Serpentaria secured her fourth win from just five starts over obstacles with an impressive display in the Easter Festival Hurdle at Cork.
With Nicanor a notable absentee owing to the ground, the Willie Mullins-trained five-year-old went off the 1-2 market-leader having turned a competitive Leopardstown handicap into a procession earlier in the month, and was sent straight to the head of affairs by Ruby Walsh.
The writing was on the wall for her rivals three from home with all of the other jockeys hard at work and Walsh only had to push his mount out to score by two and a half lengths from Footy Facts
Patrick Mullins, son of the winning trainer, said: "She'll go for a mares hurdle in Fairyhouse and then go on to Punchestown. She might go back on the Flat too."
The champion trainer and jockey had earlier combined with Coffee Tea Or Me (11-10) in the Dromahane Maiden Hurdle and Fixed Fee (4-1) in the Firville Handicap Hurdle.
Patrick Mullins said of the former: "He'll go for the four-year-old hurdle now at Fairyhouse.
"Ruby said he was hanging a bit and that he wanted to wait until after the last to challenge, where the horse could use his Flat speed."
end
© www.irish-racing.com
