'She had some lovely snippets of form' - My Design survives scare to make a winning chase debut for Declan Queally

The Declan Queally-trained My Design made a winning transition to fences when justifying 6-5 favouritism in the 2m4f mares' beginners' chase.

The eight-year-old had run some admirable races in defeat over hurdles behind the likes of Queens Brook and Teahupoo this year, and proved too good for the Willie Mullins-trained runner-up Pont Aval.

Queally said: “She had some lovely snippets of form and we nicked a bit of black type with her. She has won a maiden hurdle and a beginners' chase, so she will likely be covered when she comes into season, but she will race on for the next three months.

"She will make a grand broodmare and owner Fiona O’Connor likes breeding horses.”

It wasn’t all plain sailing for My Design as she gave her supporters cause for alarm when she got in tight to the second-last, nearly unseating rider Kieren Buckley.

Queally added: “It's tight when you are on the inside track coming down the hill. You can be going too fast coming into that second-last – it catches horses out. We were lucky.”

Tangental charges home

Trainer Colm Murphy will have a big chance of a Cheltenham Festival winner when Impervious tackles the Mares' Chase in a fortnight, and the stable struck here when Tangental landed division one of the 3m handicap hurdle.

The seven-year-old seemed to be under significant pressure at the second-last when it looked like the leading group were getting away from him, but jockey JJ Slevin got a good jump out of Tangental at the last before the pair charged up the inside to hold off Tony Martin’s Atlantian.

Slevin said: “He did something similar when I won on him at Fairyhouse. He is a quirky lad but he can pick up when things go his way.

“He won off 80 there and might be able to pick up another one depending on what the handicapper does – he won off 86 at Fairyhouse. This was a great bit of placing from Colm."

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