BERCASA (purple cap) took the Mares' Handicap Hurdle under David Mullins© Photo Healy Racing
Bercasa (10/1) for the father-and-son team of Tom and David Mullins was always close to the pace in the Sign Up For A Tote Account Irish EBF Mares’ Handicap Hurdle, and she asserted off the home turn to run out a comfortable three and-a-half length winner.
Iamastartoo (14/1) took second with a length and three-quarters and the same back to Like An Open Book (11/1) and the slow-starting Ena Baie (8/1) in third and fourth respectively.
The winning filly, a daughter of Casamento, has found the winning thread this year, breaking her maiden over hurdles at Ballinrobe and scoring on the level for the first time at Leopardstown.
The winning trainer Tom Mullins said: “We won a couple of races with her this year but both handicappers gave her a nice slap.
"I tried her over hurdles and the Flat since and couldn’t win with her so I gave her a break before Galway.
“They were telling me she’d improved at home, and it looked like a race that nobody had anything up their sleeve.
“He (David) said they were going no gallop and he had to go on but I was calling him names at halfway.
“She’s in the Sales next week. She’s only a four-year-old filly and still a novice so I’m not sure what we will do.
“We were hoping to get into the Galway Hurdle and she would have been only 3lb out (of the handicap). She has Flat speed and that’s what you need to win a Galway Hurdle.”
Additional reporting by Alan Magee
