Refinement Claims Grade 1 Victory A dramatic renewal of the Grade 1 Dunboyne Castle Hotel & Spa Champion Stayers' Hurdle saw the market leader Mighty Man pulled up and second favourite Brave Inca finish only sixth.But the spoils went to 16/1 chance Refinement, the fourth British-trained winner of the week, who came with a well-timed run to score under Tony McCoy for trainer Jonjo O'Neill. Michael Tabor's mare had also won the Paddy Power Champion INH Flat Race at the 2005 Punchestown Festival.'She's struggled a bit this season but ran much better at Liverpool last time,' said McCoy. 'She's quite a small mare and Jonjo has done a fantastic job keeping the likes of her and Butler's Cabin going through the year.'She's a little bit idle and has her own ideas - she's a typical woman! I gave her a couple of smacks after the bend and she actually did it nicely. Mr Tabor's only got the one horse with us so hopefully he'll send a few more now!'Frank Berry, representing O'Neill, added: 'She won the Grade 1 bumper here as well and the plan going into today had been to retire her to stud but they might have a rethink now. It was a great ride from Tony.'United, who finished fourth in the Ladbrokes World Hurdle, took third on this occasion. Trainer Lucy Wadham hopes Cheltenham goes ahead with its plan to introduce a mares' race at next year's Festival.Wadham said: 'Considering she's had a long enough season I'm delighted with that run. We've beaten Refinement every time we've met this season, but maybe the trip of three miles on good ground enabled her to turn the tables. It could be that our mare is best suited to two and a half miles or two miles five furlongs.'She will stay in training next year and we'll aim for the new mares' race at Cheltenham. I only hope it's not a handicap, or she'll have top weight and everything else will be out of the handicap if Refinement is off to stud.'Brave Inca's trainer Colm Murphy said: 'It's been a long year and I wouldn't read too much into that. The ground might have been a little fast but he's had a lot of hard races and that might have been one too many.'Crowd UpToday's attendance on the third day of the Irish National Hunt Festival was 19,858, up from 19,189 on the same day in 2006.Tuesday's attendance was 17,974 while the crowd on Wednesday was 20,153 .
