 |
|
|
|
|
Punchestown Festival 2012 |
Quevega Claims World Series Hurdle Hat-Trick
26/04/12
1 Quevega 11/10F
2 Voler La Vedette 11/4
3 Mourad 13/2
NR: Get Me Out Of Here (IRE), Won In The Dark (IRE)
7 ran Distances: 5½l, 4½l, 5½l
TIME 6m 29.50s (slow by 46.50s)
The brilliant mare Quevega (11/10 Fav) was saddled by Willie Mullins to win her third successive Ladbrokes.com World Series Hurdle under jockey Ruby Walsh.
 |
“She is just an extraordinary mare. She did everything Ruby asked, he had no problems throughout the race and she was in real racing mode today,” said Mullins, who was enjoying his seventh success of the 2012 Festival.
“She has a lot of speed and won three times on the Flat before coming to Ireland and I put her in the two-mile race tomorrow as I wouldn’t afraid of taking them on. We think she’s better on better ground as well.
“She’s a really good mare and showed it today - Voler La Vedette came into the race with good credentials after her great run at Cheltenham so we were a bit worried about that for Quevega. But she did the business and I’m absolutely delighted with her. She is just an extraordinary mare.
 |
“She’s fantastic to train and I was a bit worried because she came into season last week but she went out of season quick enough. I don’t know whether we’ll go to Auteuil now, I’ll have a chat to the owners.”
Asked if she would take on Big Buck’s at some point, Mullins said: “As long as he gets an entry in the mares’ race at Cheltenham! But seriously I think we will just do the same next season and why change?
“The plan we follow with Quevega works fantastically well. We always try and get her ready for Cheltenham with a month to spare so if anyone thing does go wrong we have her fairly fit. I’m going to keep it simple and I suppose we might meet Big Buck’s somewhere away from Cheltenham but I wouldn’t really want to miss this race to go to Aintree.”
