The centre-piece at Thurles, the Listed Irish Stallion Farms EBF Boreen Belle Mares Novice Hurdle went to odds-on favourite Gauloise for Willie Mullins and Paul Townend.

She was making it two from two over two miles at Thurles, since arriving from France, and she was adding to the gains of successful owner Kenny Alexander in this pre-Christmas highlight.

Alexander was on the mark here in 2018 with the great Honeysuckle, and today Gauloise put her stamp on things when taking over two out.

The prominent racing second market choice Sayce Gold (finished seventh) was beaten off at this stage, and it was Mighty Blue (switched left before the last) that gave Gauloise most to do.

Joseph O’Brien and Donagh Meyler were bidding for second wins of the session with that one, and whilst the daughter of Authorized ran well, she found herself three lengths down at the line.

"At home she has looked like she improved and she has shown me that at the race track and her jumping was good enough too,” said Mullins.

"I think she is going to improve again and the minimum trip is no problem to her.

"Paul said she took off with him after the second last and he wasn't expecting that sort of response. He thinks she had to show stamina to stay after opening up her lead so all in all it's looking good for her and he thinks she can improve again.

"I imagine she might have one more run before Cheltenham but she looks like she is good enough to go up in grade; her next run will hopefully copperfasten that."

On Ferny Hollow meanwhile Mullins said: "It looks like he has a stress fracture and he was lame after his last run and didn't recover. We can't find anything wrong, he is lame behind - we can't find it on an x-ray and that usually means there is some little fracture there.

"Those things will recover 100 percent - it is disappointing but it could be a lot worse than that. Punchestown is a possibility as usually they need four to six weeks depending on how they recover and the horse will tell us that more than anything else."

For the Mares' Novices' Hurdle at Cheltenham Paddy Power go 6/1 favourite from 10/1 about Gauloise.

The Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board Veterinary Officer examined Sayce Gold, trained by Michael Winters, at the request of the Stewards and reported the animal to be post race normal.

Owing to the low evelation of the sun, the Stewards granted permission for hurdle #3 (third last) to be omitted from this race

(TW & EM)