Westerner Lady lands Grade 2 Mares Novice

Westerner Lady continued her remarkable run of success when taking the featured Grade 2 Champs Elysees Coolmore National Hunt Sires EBF Mares Novice Chase at Thurles.

The seven-year-old daughter of Westerner was winning for the tenth time in her last 12 starts, and was stepping up again from a Grade 3 victory at Clonmel last time. Keppols Queen made a bold bid from the front but was joined by the 4/6 favourite when crashing out at the final fence.

This left the Willie Mullins-trained prolific winner clear to score by two and a half lengths under Ruby Walsh.

Daisy’s Gift completed a 1-2 for the Mullins yard, while Not For Burning was a further two and three quarter lengths adrift in third.

Mullins said, “She has been a fantastic servant to us all year, and is doing way more than we envisaged. We were supposed to give her a break but I’m not going to until she gets beat.

“We will keep her to mares’ races. She tends to jump a bit out to the left but Ruby was happy enough, and she probably prefers being out on her own a bit anyway.

“There was a race on at the last but it was our day today. The mild winter we’ve had has helped her to gain all these wins as I never dreamt of her going on real heavy ground. She can run again in three weeks’ time. She is easy to train and does her job.

“I will keep her to this job (fences), and I don’t think we will enter her for Cheltenham.

“The cheek-pieces may have helped Daisy’s Gift to concentrate as she has had two falls. It will help to get her confidence back.”

The prolific Westerner Lady makes it five from six over fences with victory in the feature Grade 2 mares' novice chase at @thurlesraces: pic.twitter.com/GEpvPoBTiR

— At The Races (@AtTheRaces) January 19, 2017