Son Of Westerner Impresses In Paddy Power Chase

Castlebawn West (7g Westerner - Cooksgrove Lady, by Anshan) completed a terrific treble for Willie Mullins and Paul Townend on Sunday when carrying topweight to success in the valuable Paddy Power Chase at Leopardstown.

The son of Westerner made a pleasing return to action last month when finishing third in another Grade B contest at Punchestown and stepped up to three miles for the €82,500 feature. Leading from the fourth fence, he faced a strong challenge from the third last and briefly disputed before asserting on the run-in. Pushed out, he scored by four and a half lengths from Minella Times (Oscar).

The winning trainer was impressed by his charge’s performance and said, “That was a huge performance. He’d been working very well at home but it’s hard to go into a big handicap like that with top-weight thinking he could win.”

Mullins mentioned the Aintree Grand National and Irish Grand National as possible aims for Castlebawn West, who is owned by Rose Boyd, Mrs MJ Armstrong and exors of the late JB Anderson.

Castlebawn West is the first foal bred by Thomas Maher out of multiple hurdle winner Cooksgrove Lady.