Great White Shark© Photo Healy Racing
Great White Shark was a late withdrawal from yesterday’s Grade 3 Quevega Mares Hurdle at Punchestown due to unsuitable ground conditions.
Her trainer Willie Mullins is likely to now send her straight to the Cheltenham Festival where the grey daughter of Le Havre has a choice of engagements.
The Malcolm Denmark-owned dual-purpose performer gained her most notable success in last October’s Newmarket Cesarewitch, and has also won three times over hurdles including a valuable handicap last summer at Galway.
Sent off a 40/1 chance for last season’s Martin Pipe Conditional Jockeys’ Handicap Hurdle on her only previous start at Cheltenham, Great White Shark was a creditable third beaten only a little over three lengths by Indefatigable.
On her first outing since her Newmarket triumph in the hands of Jason Watson which gave her trainer a third successive victory in that historic staying handicap, the 7-year-old weakened to finish a distant seventh behind Sams Profile in the Galmoy Hurdle on very testing ground at Gowran Park in January.
Explaining his decision to withdraw her at Punchestown, Mullins commented: “I was hoping the ground (officially soft) would dry out a bit more in the 48 hour period after declarations but with the frost it didn’t quite dry out as much as I’d hoped.
“She will probably go for the Close Brothers’ Mares Hurdle (the fifth race on the first day of the Festival) at Cheltenham. She is also in the Coral Cup so we’ll see how she is treated before making a final decision.”
