Easy for Queen in the first at Downpatrick A bumper winner at Punchestown this time last year, Brosna Queen ran out a very taking winner of the opening Irish Stallion Farms EBF Mares Maiden Hurdle at Downpatrick this afternoon. Ridden for owner Tony Kilduff and trainer Sonny Carey by Ricky Doyle, the strong 11/4 joint-favourite was going very easily when she took up the running approaching the final hurdle. Soon a few lengths clear, she stayed on strongly up the hill to beat Henry de Bromhead’s 9/2 chance Spring Waltz and Kieran Buckley by a length and a quarter with her fellow joint-favourite Ardeen Joy a further eight and a half lengths back in third place for Gordon Elliott and Kevin Sexton. Carey said: “She's a decent mare just things haven't gone right for her the last year, but touch wood we have her right now, I think. “She's out of a Hawk Wing mare and she is a Getaway, she probably just wants that bit of better ground. “We will see how we go with her now. “Downpatrick has been for lucky for us and we have always been very lucky up north, in Down Royal as well. Even riding here, I was very lucky.” Additional reporting by Michael Graham
