Aurora Vega successfully stepped up in class to provide trainer Willie Mullins with a 10th victory in the SBK Solerina Mares’ Novice Hurdle at Fairyhouse.
The champion trainer fired a three-pronged assault at a Grade Three contest he has dominated in recent years, with 85-40 favourite Aurora Vega joined by a couple of talented stablemates in Baby Kate and Fancy Girl.
Impeccably-bred being a daughter of Walk In The Park out of the great racemare Quevega, Aurora Vega had won five of eight previous starts and was bidding to make it back-to-back victories at Fairyhouse following an all-the-way victory there on New Year’s Day.
The choice of stable jockey Paul Townend, the seven-year-old was never too far off the pace and picked up well in the straight to pull clear of the chasing pack.
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Dream On Baby briefly threatened to make a race of it after Aurora Vega steadied herself approaching the final flight, but the latter found more on the run-in to prevail by a length and three-quarters.
Beauforts Storm was best of the rest in third, with Baby Kate and Fancy Girl both disappointing.
Coral cut Aurora Vega’s odds for the Mares’ Novices’ Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival to 12-1 from 25-1, but Mullins suggested she may instead stay at home.
“It looked a big improvement to me, I was really taken by that performance,” said Mullins. “I thought she’d come on a lot from the last day, [but] I wasn’t expecting that out of her.
“She looked like one that you’d maybe want to keep for the Grade One Mares’ Novice here at Easter. That would be foremost in my mind at the moment.
“Baby Kate disappointed me a little bit with her performance there.”
