Kupatana Leads Home 1-2 For Coolmore Sires At Cheltenham

Kupatana (6m Westerner - Kildea Cailin, by Anshan) led home a 1-2 for Coolmore national hunt sires in Thursday’s Listed EBF Mares’ Novices’ Handicap Chase Final at Cheltenham.

An impressive 18 length winner last time out at Kelso, the Paul Nicholls-trained mare was sent off favourite of seven runners for the two and a half mile contest. The bay was ridden to lead by Harry Cobden, with her rivals joining to challenge at the final fence, from which she was driven out to hold off Little Miss Poet (Yeats) by a length and a quarter.

Kupatana will next be seen in the sales ring as part of a dispersal by owners Grech and Parkin. They bought her through Highflyer Bloodstock for £120,000 after impressing on her sole start for Aidan Fitzgerald, winning a Four-Year-Old mares Maiden at Monksgrange by eight lengths.

Bred by Michael Lynch, both of her full-brothers have been placed in early stages of their career, with Ahead Of The Game finishing third on debut in a bumper, while Deluxe Range gained the same placing in a Portush maiden.