Royal Kahala and Kevin Sexton © Photo Healy Racing
Royal Kahala landed the spoils in the John Mulhern Galmoy Hurdle at Gowran Park this afternoon as hotpot Klassical Dream finished only fourth in the Grade 2 contest.
Klassical Dream took them along in the three-miler and jumped well at the head of affairs.
The 1/3 favourite was strongly pressed over the second last, however, as Royal Kahala, Home By The Lee and Ashdale Bob all took close order.
It was the Peter Fahey-trained mare who gained a narrow advantage down the final flight as Klassical Dream found little.
She flew the last for Kevin Sexton and galloped on strongly in the closing stages to beat Home By The Lee by a length-and-three-quarters.
There were eight lengths further back to Ashdale Bob in third as Klassical Dream took the fourth spot.
Royal Kahala was following on from a Grade 3 success in mares company at Leopardstown over Christmas and has options now at Cheltenham in March.
Fahey said:- “It was a brilliant performance. If you go back through her form, her bad run was at Cheltenham last year and she was lame after it.
“We were always keen to step her up to the three miles as her jumping is a bit slow. When they are going that bit quicker over two and a half on quicker ground she can make the odd mistake.
“That gives us options. I’m not saying after that she’s definitely going to go for the Stayers, we’ll see closer to it.
“If the ground was very soft in Cheltenham on the first day she could go for the Mares Hurdle. Hopefully she comes out of this race well and fingers crossed we’ll rock on to Cheltenham.
“I expected her to run a huge race today. She was working well at home and is a filly we always thought a lot of.
“Cheltenham will be ground dependant. I wouldn’t run her on good ground over there. She’d want a bit of soft in it.”
Sexton told RTE afterwards:- “She's just so tough. I never had any doubt she'd stay three miles and she stayed every bit of it.
“I got there at the second last as I wanted to take Paul off the bridle. If anything I probably should have held on to her a bit longer, it probably wouldn't have been as hard work.
“She's idling down the straight and she jumped right at the last, I'd say she still had a bit left.
“When I jumped the third last and I gave her a squeeze, and I seen him (Paul Townend) dip his lad coming down the hill in front of me I thought then I had every chance of beating him.
“I thought it was all about who would find more off the bridle from there and I knew she'd find plenty.
“She travelled and she jumped, she's so clever. Peter always tells me to leave her alone but she has so much scope it's hard to do it. You'd be afraid you'd put her on the ground because she's clever enough to do it herself.
“It's great for the yard and the syndicate and I'm just privileged and very lucky to be in the position I'm in. I'm thankful to everyone who keeps putting me up.”
Paul Townend reflected afterwards:- “I’m disappointed. The ground is testing, it’s tacky old ground.”
The winner was trimmed for the Mares Hurdle into 6/1 (from 8/1) with BoyleSports and 5/1 (from 10/1) with Paddy Power and Betfair
She is now a 20/1 shot (from 25/1) with BoyleSports for the Stayers Hurdle while sponsors Paddy Power and Betfair go 16/1 (from 40/1).
Klassical Dream was eased to 6/1 (from 5/2) with BoyleSports and is now 5/1 (from 5/2) with Paddy Power and Betfair. Champ is the 11/4 fav.
(Additional reporting by Alan Magee)
