English/Ire
Zanoosh denies Mullins fifth straight Honeysuckle Mares Novice Hurdle victory
Zanoosh, trained by Colm Murphy, won the Grade 1 Honeysuckle Mares Novice Hurdle at Fairyhouse to deny Willie Mullins a fifth consecutive success in the race.
Ridden by Brian Hayes, the 9-2 chance produced a polished performance to score by a length and three-quarters from Place de La Nation. Charme de Faust was third and Future Prospect fourth, giving Mullins three of the first four home despite missing out on the winner.
Oldschool Outlaw, the 11-4 favourite, finished fifth after failing to find any further improvement in the straight, while Harry Derham’s Jackie Hobbs was the leading British runner in sixth.
The victory continued Zanoosh’s excellent recent run of form. She won a bumper at this meeting in 2025 and has since added hurdle wins at Punchestown and Navan, where she scored twice, as well as landing the Grade 3 Shannon Spray Mares Novice Hurdle at Limerick.
Murphy told Racing TV: "You're hoping they keep improving, she's done nothing wrong all year and in fairness she's improved with every run.
"She's been good, I said after the second run at Navan that we might not see her again this year, after having a hard race on heavy ground, but she's improved with every run and come back bouncing.
"Again, we'll see how she is after this. We'll let her tell us. She has an entry at Aintree at the weekend but I'd say we probably won't go there! It [the Cheltenham Festival] probably just didn't fall right for her this year and we're glad now that we didn't go.
"I was always happy, she travelled really well and Brian knows her well. She settled and slotted in, he had a lovely position the whole way around."
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