The Jessica Harrington-trained Supasundae captured the £250,000 Gr1 Betway Aintree Hurdle in attritional conditions at Aintree on Thursday.
Ridden by Robbie Power, the nine-year-old son of Galileo kept on gamely in the closing stages to deny 5/6 favourite Buveur D’Air, trained by Nicky Henderson and partnered by Barry Geraghty, who was hampered by the fall of the Willie Mullins-trained Melon (8/1) three flights from home.
Supasundae was second in the two mile and four furlong event in 2017 and 2018, so Harrington was delighted that the gelding had finally landed the G1 event.
She said: “We didn’t come into this race with Supasundae with great confidence after what happened at Cheltenham. That was the first bad race he ran for us and I just don’t know what went wrong there. All I could put it down to was sticky ground and he just didn’t like it.
“However, today he kept coming back and finding for pressure. This trip is probably his best as he doesn’t seem to get three miles.
“Supasundae’s been second in this race twice and it was great for him to finally win today.
“He will definitely go to Punchestown. I will make up my mind at some point about whether he goes over two miles or three miles, but he’ll be put in both races.”
Supasundae is a 20/1 shot for the G1 Sun Racing Stayers’ Hurdle at the 2020 Cheltenham Festival.
