Honeysuckle kept her unbeaten record intact when taking her third consecutive Grade 1 Hattons Grace Hurdle at Fairyhouse on Sunday.
The Kenny Alexander trained mare made another impressive season start with an impressive victory in the hands of her usual pilot Rachael Blackmore.
The pair looked to have the race in the bag travelling into the straight, the only one who tried to challenge was the eventual runner-up Ronald Pump who finished eight lengths behind.
The daughter of Sulamani has kept her unbeaten record intact with an astonishing 14 victories, 13 under rules and one winner between the flags.
An elated Henry de Bromhead said afterwards: ‘Rachael brilliant on her, they are just a lethal combination. She was really psyched before the race when we were saddling her, she was trying to bite Colman, kick Alan and the only one getting away with it was me!’
‘She probably gave me a fright last year so we might have done a little bit more for it this year. We had her pretty ready for today. She is an incredible mare and to be associated with her is amazing, the reception she got was unbelievable.’
‘I think she will go for the Irish Champion Hurdle now, that has worked for us before and we can back off her now for a few weeks and prep her for that I think that will be our plan.’
‘It’s fantastic to have Kenny and his family over for the day, brilliant to have all their crew here and it’s just amazing.’
‘We have run her on quicker ground before, rachael made that point but look that was probably at the start of her career when winning her maiden hurdle but everyone was happy todays ground was safe.’
