Favourite wins Fairyhouse opener for Mags & Danny Mullins The Connolly's RED MILLS Irish EBF Auction Maiden Hurdle was the opener at Fairyhouse and it went the way of 2/1 favourite Eagle’s Quest who made all under Danny Mullins. The latter set steady fractions on the six-year-old, who had been runner-up at Gowran Park last time out, and wound up the pace going to two out. The winner was pursued down to the final flight by keen-going hurdling debutant Simply Natural and outjumped that rival there before being ridden out to score by a length and a quarter. Mullins' mother, Mags Mullins, trains the winner and owns him in partnership with another of her sons, Anthony, and Jackie Cullen. “He’s qualified for the final now in Punchestown,” said winning trainer Mags Mullins. “It’s Jackie’s first horse. He asked me to buy him a racehorse and I said “Jackie, you’ve enough hardship!” He was adamant he had to get a racehorse. “I wanted to get a horse that would run pretty quick and this horse answered the question. “They are racing every day with him. He’s my mother’s brother and my auntie Carmel comes as well, they all come every day. “One of my cousins said ‘they don’t go anywhere, but they go to see this horse run’. “Jackie has said to me that he has something to get up for every day. It’s just a great result.” Additional reporting by Gary Carson
