Three Stars wins G3 for Westerner

Henry de Bromhead sent out Three Stars (5g Westerner-Hapeney, by Saddlers´ Hall) to take the G3 ‘For Auction’ Novice Hurdle at Navan on Sunday to bring more graded success for Westerner. The five-year-old, bred by A V Bloodstock, scored by two and a half lengths under Jonathan Burke on soft ground that connections felt would be far from ideal. “Three Stars did that really well. I thought that he would struggle on the ground. We said that we would hold on to him a bit more today and he stayed at it well. He's obviously a nice horse. The plan was to give a break after this until the spring. He could still do that or we may just back off him a little bit and then go to Leopardstown at Christmas,” De Bromhead told the Racing Post. Burke added: "He has a good turn of foot. Anything he does over hurdles will be a bonus because he looks like he could be really good over fences. I was not shocked he won today. I knew he was a nice horse.”