Quevega lands number five

Quevega produced another remarkable performance to land her fifth straight victory in the OLBG Mares' Hurdle at Cheltenham.

Ruby Walsh had a hairy moment before the third last when the 8/11 favourite stumbled.

She had ground to make up from the next as French-trained 33/1 outsider Sirene D'ainay hit the front.

Willie Mullins' star mare started to motor approaching the final flight and grabbed Sirene D'ainay on the run-in to post a hard fought length-and-a-half success.

“I was very very lucky," Walsh admitted on Channel 4 afterwards.

"I'm not sure if she stood on herself or clipped heels with something else but she was on the floor at the top of the hill. She nodded and I nearly fell over her ears.

“When she stood back up the boys were gone and I had to sit and suffer down the hill.

“She has a tremendous little engine and a wonderful attitude and you'd have to say she's trained by a genius.

“In fairness to her she jumped the last and by god did she battle. I would have won very easily only for nearly having a disaster at the top of the hill.

“When your luck is in, your luck is in, and my luck is in today.”

Quevega equalled Golden Miller's record of five successive victories at the Cheltenham Festival and Mullins said:-

"We thought we had the team in great order coming over.

"She is a fantastic mare. She's just so good and changes gear when she wants to.

"Ruby rode her with a lot of confidence. I thought he was five or six lengths out of his ground but when he slipped her wide, she found another gear.

"Once the last hurdle opened up for her you could see her putting her head down and you knew if she jumped the last she was going to make it.

"She's very good - very precious.

"To be associated with a horse that wins five times at the Festival, you don't dream of those things.

"I used to read about horses like Golden Miller in those racing books when I was young, but those horses are once in a lifetime - once in a century.

"I'm privileged to be part of it."