Cheltenham Results Fri, 13th Mar, 2026

See also » Dinoblue defends her Mares’ Chase crown with minimum of fuss
It was a competitive race and I think she got an excellent ride from Mark and what more can I say, I’m just very happy. One thing Mark said when he got off her was that her jumping today was magical. The last ditch she jumped so well and took her into the race and she was just competitive then. Mark didn’t want to go that far out but what could he do. She’s very uncomplicated, a lovely mare and she’s a good match with Mark. That looked her best performance without going through the form book. We’d been worried about the trip before but there didn’t seem to be any problem with anything this year — ground, trip but especially her jumping, that was extraordinary. If you had a horse jump like that every day of the week, it would make this game easy. I don’t know when she might go off to stud, the main difference between the Irish and French is that in France they’d go off to stud with her, but we treat these mares as racehorses and if they are good we tend to keep them. I’ll leave that up to the owner. There’s nice mares’ races for her left this season, so I’d imagine she’d stick to them. W P Mullins, trainer

THE MRS PADDY POWER MARES' STEEPLE CHASE (CLASS 1) (Registered as THE LIBERTHINE MARES' STEEPLE CHASE) (Grade 2) (GBB RACE) Permission was given for Piper Park (IRE), and July Flower (FR) to wear a red hood to post.

Piper Park (IRE) unseated Stan Sheppard on the way to post; having been checked by the doctor upon arrival at the Start, Sheppard was deemed fit to race.

An enquiry was held into the start of this race, in particular in reference to why one of the Advanced Flag Operators appeared to be slow to drop his flag and clear the track.

The Clerk of the Course, the Starter, and the Advanced Flag Operator were interviewed.

After hearing their evidence, a report was forwarded to the Head Office of the British Horseracing Authority for further consideration.