Place De La Nation justifies short price to open account Triumph Hurdle fifth Place De La Nation recorded her first career victory when justifying short odds in the Irish Stallion Farms EBF Mares Maiden Hurdle at Thurles. Sent off a prohibitive 1/5f under Paul Townend, the Gigginstown House Stud owned filly tracked the leaders before coming through to head Divaboriva after the penultimate flight. Although having to be kept up to her work, the Willie Mullins trained four-year-old was always doing enough to secure a comfortable one-and-a-half length victory. Paul Townend said: "She knuckled down and class probably got her through in the end. She jumping so well early but I wasn't able to use my ace card as I didn't want to let her on, and to potentially then give her a proper grueller of a race. "She took a couple of blows but she handled the ground nicely and stayed the trip well. There is improvement in her and she jumps like a buck. "Ideally you wouldn't want to run this far on her first run back but the race was there for her and there is a suitably sound surface here." On the Morgiana Hurdle, he added: "Lossiemouth is the one you'd pick for Saturday's race and I'm just glad to have her as a super-sub. She is in good form and hopefully we can crack on for the season. Paddy Power pushed Place De La Nation out to 25/1 (from 16/1) for the Mares Novices' Hurdle. Additional reporting by Thomas Weekes.
