Eileendover dazzles in Market Rasen feature

Pam Sly’s unbeaten four-year-old is ‘proper, proper mare’.

Eileendover took her unbeaten record to three with a hugely impressive victory in the Listed bumper at Market Rasen.

The granddaughter of trainer Pam Sly’s 2006 1000 Guineas heroine Speciosa brushed her rivals aside with contemptuous ease, as she turned the Alan Swinbank Mares’ Standard Open National Hunt Flat Race into a procession.

Fashion Nova and Dragon Bones made the running, but there was little between the seven-strong field as they headed out of the back straight.

Paul O’Brien brought Eileendover on the wide outside to make his challenge, with the 11-8 favourite travelling ominously well.

She cruised into the lead early in the straight and drew six and a half lengths clear of Miss Lamb. Main market rival Grangee, trained in Ireland by Willie Mullins, was third.

Sly said: “That was good, wasn’t it? Very good. I thought ‘Oh my god, she’s never going to get there’, but she just found another gear didn’t she? She just took off and flew.

“I’ve had a lot of offers for her but she’s not for sale, she’s not going anywhere! She’s a proper, proper mare.”

O’Brien said: “She just motors through the ground, she just travels so easily. She’d handle a bit of nicer ground, I think. We were all a bit worried about the ground because we were going up three furlongs as well, but she handles that ground and she’d handle better ground, too.

“It was pretty easy, I pulled her out just to get a bit of fresher ground and keep it simple for her. I actually don’t know how far she won by, but she bolted up.

“She can step up again. She can take on the geldings in a good race too, I’m certain of that.”

Eileendover was slashed to 10-1 from 20-1 for the Champion Bumper at Cheltenham with Paddy Power and Betfair.

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