Hopeful gets the luck

Hopeful Venture has been threatening to win a race now for some time and the form of her narrow Roscommon defeat was franked when Media Queen won again at Ballinrobe on Tuesday. However she had a large element of luck about her first career success in the Greenmount Conference Centre Mares Maiden Hurdle. Munster Lass looked all set to open her account on the racecourse proper at the last when she fell, badly hampering Loughaderra Dame and bringing down High Amenity All this carnage left Leslie Young's 11/2 shot under Ruby Walsh to beat joint market-leader, Loughaderra Dame. The riders of Munster Lass (Slippers Madden) and High Amenity (Stephen Gray) emerged unscathed. The latter missed his remaining rides of the evening.

It was a particularly sickening blow for Co. Clare trainer Lorna Casey and the local owners, the Shannon Seven Syndicate as Munster Lass had to be destroyed.