Vedette impresses with victory

Voler La Vedette: At the top of her game

Voler La Vedette (13/8) was an impressive winner of the Grade 2 woodiesdiy.com Christmas Hurdle at Leopardstown.

Colm Murphy's mare was tackling the three mile trip for the first time and she gave herself her evey chance of staying by settling very well for Andrew Lynch.

Mourad had the advantage as the field swung for home but Voler La Vedette was right in his slipstream and poised to challenge.

She showed a nice turn of foot to sweep past the 4/5 market leader and a springheeled leap at the last secured her third win from three starts this season by four and three quarter lengths.

Sky Bet cut the winner from 8/1 to 4/1 for the David Nicholson Mares' Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival.

No Quick Return

Voler La Vedette is declared to run in Thursday's Istabraq Festival Hurdle over two miles, but is unlikely to take her chance.

Murphy said: "She was in great form and came out of her last race very well. She has loads of options, she could go back to two miles or have another three-mile race.

"She's in tomorrow but that's just an option in case something happened today. I would love to run her, but it probably wouldn't be the right thing to do.

"I had my heart set on the race tomorrow since the last day but after the ground dried up there was no decision.

"She's a different mare this year as she settles so well."

Lynch added: "She settled well today and settled well in her last two races. It was a truly run race. She travelled real well to the turn in and she picked up well."