Festival talk for Curran as 'star' filly scoops more Listed honours

Sean Curran is dreaming of taking on the likes of Willie Mullins at the major spring festivals with Talking About You, who continued her remarkable resurgence with more Listed honours in the feature Byerley Stud Mares' Novices' Hurdle.

The three-year-old lost her way during the autumn but bounced back to her best with easy victories at Ludlow and in a Listed contest at Aintree earlier in the month, and she registered another rampant success at the same level with a two-and-a-quarter-length victory.

"She's a star. To get one, let alone two Listed races under her belt is huge," he said. "She keeps surprising me all the time. She's thriving and has finally clicked. It's her behaviour before the race and you have to keep her calm, it worked at Aintree and now here. She gets a bit like the wife before the race – a bit lively!"

Curran will now step the Ian McGready-owned filly up in class and while Cheltenham will come under consideration, she is likely to be seen back at Merseyside for the Grand National meeting.

He added: "If I had the choice, I'd skip Cheltenham and go back to Aintree. Neither festival is easy – the Triumph would not be her sort of race the way she runs and Willie Mullins always has something that'll win the mares' race.

"For the small farm we are, to even consider those type of races is brilliant."

Honours shared in dramatic dead-heat

Premier D'Troice and Broken Quest could not be separated and shared the spoils in a dramatic dead-heat finish to the 3m handicap hurdle.

The former looked to have got up in the dying strides, but the judge could not separate the duo and the prize was shared between trainers Archie Watson and Tom Symonds.

Archie Watson: Group 1-winning Flat trainer shared the spoils with a dead-heat over jumpsCredit: Edward Whitaker

"My instant thought was that we'd got up, but not that it matters, I'm glad it was a dead-heat because he deserves to win," Watson said. "He's a talented horse when he puts it together, but he's a difficult horse to know."

Lucky Lion

Little Red Lion looked booked for minor honours in the 2m7f novice handicap chase but was gifted victory when Oski veered violently left to hand success to the six-year-old.

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