Witches Familiar looks the part again at Gowran

Witches Familiar maintained her unbeaten run over hurdles as she barely got out of first gear in bolting up in the BOYLE Sports Novice Hurdle at Galway.

Paul Townend switched off the Willie-Mullins-trained 2-5 favourite in the slipstream of Switch From Diesel and Mino Des Mottes before even thinking about getting serious as they approached the second-last flight.

The Rich Ricci-owned filly coasted into the lead with barely a shake of the reins before leaving the field in her wake as she streaked clear to win the Grade Three event by an eased-down by 10 lengths.

Assistant trainer David Casey said: “She was good in Galway and did it well again. Paul was delighted with her, thought she was good and relaxed and when he had to grab hold of her, her reaction was instantaneous. He said that she keeps surprising him and keeps getting better.

“There is a good gap between here and the Royal Bond so that is a possibility and, long-term, you’d be thinking about the Mares’ Novices’ Hurdle at Cheltenham.

“She has been running on good ground but was with us all last winter and had no issues with our heavy all-weather gallop, so I’m hoping she’ll be fine on soft.”

The Gordon Elliott-trained El Cairos (11-8) was left clear at the final flight after the fall of Ebony King to be handed the Listed Gowran Park Hurdle on a plate.

Elliott said: “We had luck on our side, Jack said he wasn’t sure what would have happened. However, the thing he said was that El Cairos was galloping at the last, and said we could actually go further (in distance) with him so we might now experiment with stepping him up in trip as well.

“Things went wrong with him falling at Leopardstown last year and his whole season was a mess afterwards.”