Lady Bluebird stuns Wexford rivals on chase debut at 20-1

Lady Bluebird jumped with the poise of a mare far more seasoned than a 20-1 outsider when she won the Cottage Autism Network Mares Beginners Chase at Wexford on Tuesday. Over 2m3½f on good ground with showers, she took control after the second fence and repelled the Willie Mullins-trained Future Prospect in an eight-runner race worth €13,000 in guaranteed prize-money, with €7,657 to the winner.

What made the result so striking was the contrast between how the race was priced and how it was run. The betting forecast had Lady Bluebird at 25-1, while Farfromnowhere was the 11-8 favourite after running in the Martin Pipe at Cheltenham off 138 and Future Prospect had already finished fourth in a Grade 1 mares novice hurdle at Fairyhouse in April. Lady Bluebird, by comparison, arrived with a hurdles rating of 105 and a profile that looked modest on paper, even though she had already won a bumper and two hurdle races before this first try over fences.

The real difference was in the jumping. Ben Harvey kept Lady Bluebird travelling confidently, and every fence seemed to sharpen rather than unsettle her. When Brian Hayes moved Future Prospect into contention approaching the last, Lady Bluebird still found enough under pressure to see off the Mullins mare, who had won at Naas on 9 January and carried stronger black-type credentials into the contest. That finishing response mattered as much as the result itself, because it suggested the mare’s fencing was not a one-off advantage but a skill that could define her summer campaign.

The win also landed as a notable moment for Hugh Paul Finegan’s small Meath yard. His stable had run only eight horses over jumps between that season and the previous one, so a mare like Lady Bluebird beating a horse from the Willie Mullins stable carries real weight beyond one afternoon at Wexford. Sporting Life’s figures showed the nine-year-old had gone into the race with 21 runs, four wins, two seconds and three thirds, and her most recent form already included a Tramore win on 20 April and a third at Ballinrobe on 26 May. That base of form, plus a sharper look over fences, made Wexford feel less like a fluke and more like the start of a more ambitious chapter.