'I wasn't overly hopeful' - local family who run dairy farm stunned by 'unexpected' first ever winner at 100-1

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It was a memorable day for the Hennessy family as Local News caused a huge 100-1 shock on her debut in the 2m3f mares' maiden hurdle.

Trained locally by Richard Hennessy, the six-year-old homebred was only the fourth runner from the yard, but she defeated 4-7 favourite Divaboriva by a head under Josh Williamson.

The winning trainer said: "I wasn't overly hopeful but she's a very pleasant mare. When you have only a few horses, you don't really know how they're going because we don't have many to gauge it.

"It's fantastic and hopefully she can go somewhere again. We're just delighted because it's unexpected. She always shows in her work that she's not stopping, so when they try, it's a big help."

The Hennessy family put the majority of their focus on a dairy farm in County Cork, and speaking to Racing TV, the trainer added: "We've two horses in now, but we had three in for the winter. Hopefully, we'll have one or two for the summer because it's a big family buzz.

"I took over from my dad. He was the restricted trainer for ages. We're dairy farming at home, so that's the main job, and this is the side bit."

Successful Mission

The Philip Rothwell-trained Moon Mission got off the mark at the 11th attempt with victory in the 2m1½f novice hurdle. 

The five-year-old, who had finished third on four occasions, got his head in front under Tiernan Power Roche on his seventh start over hurdles.

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