MARIE’S ROCK STORMS TO WIN ON COMEBACK

MARIE’S ROCK may face tough opposition to win the Mares’ Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival for the second year running but she proved she will be a tough nut to crack with a decisive win in the Relkeel Hurdle at the track yesterday.

The shadow cast over the Champion Hurdle picture by stablemate Constitution Hill, trained by Nicky Henderson, means twotime winner Honeysuckle and Henderson’s 2020 champion Epatante could both be rerouted to the Mares’ Hurdle in March. But Marie’s Rock showed with a six-length defeat of Dashel Drasher under Nico De Boinville that she will not easily relinquish her crown.

Her victory was all the more commendable given Marie’s Rock was expected to show signs of ring rust after a 246-day absence from the track, since she won the Grade One Mares’ Hurdle at Punchestown in April. Henderson said: ‘To be very fair to do that was pretty impressive. She tanked up there and I thought she would have taken a blow at the top of Cleeve Hill. I can’t see any point in going anywhere before the Festival now.’ De Boinville (right) added: ‘I was surprised she was that impressive in that ground as it was dead and sticky. She felt fresh and jumped brilliantly. She is just a true Grade One mare.’

Marie’s Rock won a handicap hurdle at Kempton on Boxing Day in 2021 and her only defeat in five starts since came when she was nearly brought down by a faller at Kempton in February.

Nigel Twiston-Davies-trained I Like To Move It was 3-1 favourite for yesterday’s Relkeel Hurdle but found the two-and-a-half-mile trip too far for him, finishing sixth.

But Twiston-Davies and his jockey son Sam were on the mark with Weve all been caught in the Maiden Hurdle. The winner had been beaten by Saturday’s impressive Challow Hurdle victor Hermes Allen on his last trip to Cheltenham and will seek to avoid that rival at the Festival, where the three-mile Albert Bartlett Novices’ Hurdle is likely to be his target.

Sam Twiston-Davies was also involved in the surprise outcome to the Grade Two Dipper Novices’ Chase with Patrick Neville-trained 10-1 shot The Real Whacker, who outjumped his opponents to run out a three-and-aquarter length winner from Monmiral. Over at Tramore, Henry de Brom headtrained Minella Indo, winner of the Cheltenham Gold Cup in 2021 and runner-up last year, held off Stattler by a neck in the New Year’s Day Chase. Minella Indo, who was receiving eight pounds from the runner-up, is 20-1 for the Cheltenham Gold Cup which could be his next race.