Liss Na Tintri

The two-mile trip was probably too short, but the John Kiely-trained Liss Na Tintri ran out of her skin to chase home her stable companion Candy Creek in the mares' bumper at Aintree on Friday. Held up out the back in the early stages, just as her stable companion was, she made steady headway up the home straight, and looked the main danger to tearaway early leader Morning Supreme, but then Candy Creek emerged from the pack on the far side travelling equally well, and that mare found a better turn of foot on the ground to go away and win impressively. However, Liss Na Tintri stuck to her task well, and did manage to wear down Morning Supreme inside the final 100 yards to complete a memorable 1-2 for her trainer.

My initial thought on Liss Na Tintri after her first two runs was that she would need soft ground to be at her best, and she did need all of the two-mile trip on heavy ground to land her bumper at Limerick last month. This is backed up by the fact that she is a daughter of one of the Kiely stalwarts, Liss A Paoraigh, a top class hurdler in the early 2000s who was always thought to be at her best on soft ground, as she demonstrated when she beat Stage Affair by 25 lengths in the 2002 December Festival Hurdle. However, although she was always considered a soft ground mare, and she was effective over two miles on soft or heavy ground, a test of stamina was probably more important to Liss A Paoraigh than soft ground.

Two and a half miles was her optimum trip, and she was well able to cope with better ground over the longer distance, as depicted in her defeat of beat Limestone Lad in the 2001 Lismullen Hurdle on yielding ground. So it may prove to be with Liss Na Tintri. She handled the ground at Aintree on Friday really well, ground that was officially described as good, and she is by Presenting, so there is every chance that she will be able to handle good ground over hurdles next season over two and a half miles. She is a really exciting prospect, and it is not difficult to see her making up into a Ballymore Properties horse or a David Nicholson Mares' Hurdle race horse next season. Remember that Whiteoak won that race as a novice last season.

3rd April 2009

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