Navan remains good

Witches Familiar maintained her unbeaten run over hurdles as she barely got out of first gear in bolting up in the BOYLE Sports Novice Hurdle at Galway.

The Willie Mullins-trained Witches Familiar (2/5) was an impressive and eye-catching winner of the Grade 3 BoyleSports Novice Hurdle for Paul Townend, running out a wide-margin 10-length winner. There was an honest pace throughout the contest between the Gordon Elliott-trained Mino Des Mottes and Switch From Diesel, and momentarily it looked like Paul Townend was struggling to lie up with the leaders, but once the daughter of Zarak warmed to the task, she strode on very impressively and left her rivals with a nice turn of foot to seal the contest and could be one for the notebooks going forward.

The Gordon Elliott-trained El Cairos (11/8) got his first win over hurdles since the 29th of January with a good performance in the Gowran Park hurdle, where he was an eight-and-a-half-length winner, with the Willie Mullins-trained Gaucher in second place.