THE last time that Willie and Patrick Mullins combined to win the Listed Irish Stallion Farms EBF Mucklemeg Mares Bumper, it was with Grade 1 Honeysuckle Mares Novice Hurdle heroine Aurora Vega, and hopes are high that a bright future lies in store for their 2025 scorer Liadawn.

Bred to be useful, the Jukebox Jury mare had been sent off 8/11 favourite after a 10-length success on her bumper debut at Downpatrick in June, and she maintained her unbeaten record with a gutsy two-length success here - overcoming a strong challenge from recent Galway winner Maximillian Lady.

A trip to the Cotswolds could now be on the cards for the Co Carlow-based Gorm Agus Ban Syndicate.

“She got headed but she’s very tough,” said Patrick Mullins.

“She has a fantastic pedigree; we lease them off John O’Connor [Ballylinch]. I won this bumper on her dam [Snag List] 10 years ago and we’ve had Nikini, who is her aunt, and Williamstowndancer, who is her half-sister. They are all blacktype mares. a good mare and we might look at Cheltenham in November. I think she’ll stick to bumpers this season but we’ll have a think about it.”

Mad but talented

The Irish Stallion Farms EBF Pat Walsh Memorial Mares Hurdle has been won by talented dual-purpose sorts like Lot Of Joy and Magical Zoe in recent years, and the Andy Slattery-trained Royal Hollow (3/1) survived a brief scare at the last to go one better than 12 months ago under Cian Quirke.

Margaret O’Rourke’s seven-year-old still looked to have something in reserve when winning by three and a quarter lengths from even-money favourite The Great Nudie.

“She’s fully mad and we just have to try and keep a lid on her” said Slattery “I want to run her in the Colm White Handicap at Naas [on October 12th]. She has loads of ability, she’s very talented. If she puts it all together she’s capable of winning one of those.”

Timely winner for German-bred sire

DARRAGH O’Keeffe maintained his blazing tempo to start the National Hunt season when bringing up his 42nd winner of the campaign aboard 4/7 favourite Dschingis Dragon in the Willis Towers Watson Maiden Hurdle for four-year-olds.

The Pimlico Racing Ireland-owned filly, trained by Henry de Bromhead, had to show some grit to get the better of Terence O’Brien’s promising Doctor Dino newcomer Leonard Vallis (a €75,000 store) by a length and a half. She was a timely winner for her German-bred sire Dschingis Secret, who has been acquired by Kilbarry Lodge and will stand there for the 2026 season, it was announced this week. “She more or less jumped okay, she got a bit of a fright down the back but stayed on really well,” said de Bromhead. “She knuckled down after the last and was good.”

Wind op helps Hill

The market suggested a quickfire double could be on the cards for the O’Keeffe-De Bromhead combination in the following Gowran Park Racing Club Maiden Hurdle over the same trip, with Los Blanco sent off the 4/5 favourite.

However, €310,000 point-to-point recruit Ma Jacks Hill had some relatively useful bumper form without winning last season and made a successful hurdles debut for Jack Kennedy, Gordon Elliott and Gigginstown House Stud.

Sporting a tongue-tie for the first time, the 11/4 shot shaped like one who should stay further.

“We always liked him at home but he was disappointing in bumpers,” said Kennedy. “He got his wind done and that probably brought out improvement. He’ll be a nicer horse on nicer ground.”

Roche and Fahey off the mark

PADRAIG Roche and J.P. McManus captured the first race in the new William Hill Each Way Extra Challenge Series when four-year-old homebred Watching The Clock surged through in the closing stages under Aidan Kelly to win on her handicap hurdle bow.

An unexposed homebred for Noreen McManus, the Leading Light filly didn’t travel as well as runner-up Bannow Blaze at the top of the straight, but she finished with a flourish to record a first success at 14/1.

The series offers a bonus incentive open to trainers with 50 or fewer winners in either of the last two seasons in either code, as well as rewarding jockeys, trainers and stable staff.

“She stayed at it well and Aidan said the race fell apart a bit,” Roche noted.

“It’s great to get a winner with a homebred of Noreen’s. We’ll see what the handicapper does and look for something similar. This series is a great incentive so fair play to them.”

Sign success

Peter Fahey’s A Sign From Above (3/1) wasn’t winning out of turn in the other series race on the card, the William Hill Each Way Extra Challenge Series Handicap Hurdle over two and a half miles.

Running in the colours of the trainer’s wife, Ber, the dual-purpose performer seemed to travel within his comfort zone on the rain-softened ground and was always doing enough under Sam Ewing to beat Arctic Flame by three quarters of a length.

“That was his first time wearing cheekpieces over hurdles and I think it helped,” said the winning trainer. “He might go back on the flat and then we could give him another run over hurdles before the real winter ground.”

Change of luck

There was more of an upset in the two-and-a-half-mile Thomastown Handicap Hurdle as 16/1 shot Minority Interest stepped forward nicely from his recent Kilbeggan fourth and thrived under a lovely weight of 10st 2lb in testing ground.

Ridden by Simon Torrens and trained by Philip Rothwell for the Cluain Abhann Racing Syndicate, the lightly raced five-year-old could be called the likeliest winner from some way out and beat the 11/10 favourite Darcy’s Friend by six lengths.

“That makes it a better day because it was horrendous until then,” explained Rothwell.

“I came in and an umbrella left the bookies and missed my head by an inch. I said ‘this is going to be a good day’ because it should have clocked me. Then one fell in the first, one got brought down in the third and then Quarry Rocco slipped in the stable and was lame behind - I couldn’t run him. I was saying ‘what have I done wrong?’. It’s brilliant to see this horse win.

“He ran a good race at Kilbeggan over a year ago but got an injury and we nursed him back. This is his first time that he’s got an ease in the ground.”