Easy for odds-on Miss Doyenne at Down Royal The Carsena Bloodstock Mares Maiden Hurdle, over just short of two and a-half miles, was the opener at Down Royal and it resulted in a comfortable success for the 8/11 favourite Miss Doyenne. Trained by Henry de Bromhead for Tom O'Connor's Envirogreen Housing Services Ltd, the six-year-old had been third on her first two starts over hurdles. Here, having tracked the leaders under Darragh O'Keeffe, she hit the front travelling well on the long run between the third-last and second-last flights and went away to score by seven and a-half lengths from Forever And A Day. Winning rider Darragh O'Keeffe commented "Very straightforward. I was going to pop out and make it if nothing else wanted to, but got a nice lead. Got into a nice rhythm and really came alive from the third-last home, just when I went to go on about winning my race. "She's a nice mare and she was probably a little bit disappointing the last day (at Punchestown in January), but the ground was probably plenty slow for her. "She's a real chaser in the making. "We like her at home and obviously she has won a point-to-point and a bumper. She has had a couple of solid runs over hurdles, but we felt she had more to offer." Additional reporting by Michael Graham
