Barnahash Primrose a poignant winner for Sweeney Barnahash Primrose stayed on to land an eventful mares' maiden hurdle at Leopardstown for Jonathan Sweeney and Brian Hayes. The leader, Glens Lullaby, clipped the third-last flight and fell, badly hampering the favourite Qualimita who was left in the lead. Barnahash Rose was also badly impeded and was nearly forced off the track in fourth. She made good progress to tack onto Qualimita and Full Of Life entering the straight, though. Favourite backers feared the worst when Qualimita came off the bridle on the long run to the last and it was Barnahash Primrose who was produced on the inner to go on before jumping it. She stayed on stoutly to score by eight and a-half lengths at 4/1 from the 8/11 favourite. Full Of Life attracted support from 11/2 to 10/3, but had to settle for third. “That was great. It’s been a stop-start kind of season with small niggly things all the way along,” said Sweeney. “Hopefully, they are starting to come right now. It’s great to win. “We probably had an extra man on her back with Michael O’Sullivan, he came into me a lot. It’s just an awful tragedy. “There were a lot of things went wrong for her in the race. At the start she nearly went out through the wing. She’s an honest mare. “We can draw a line through Christmas. She just gets a little bit flustered and she got flustered down at the start and they got away on her. “Limerick was very tacky and I don’t think she handled it. She won a bumper around there but it was normal loose heavy ground at Christmas and they go through it. “Hopefully, we can keep her in one piece. “Her mother (Barnahash Rose) won the Shannon Spray in Limerick (Grade 3, 2016), but it may come a bit quick in ten days time, we’ll see. “Maybe she could go to Fairyhouse for the Grade 1, would she be good enough? “We’ll try and get to Limerick if we can, but it might be coming a bit quick. We’ll see how she comes out of it.” Additional reporting by Gary Carson
