Fantastic result for Henderson at Market Rasen

Fantastic Lady delighted her owners when landing the Listed Bud Booth Mares’ Chase at Market Rasen.

The Nicky Henderson-trained seven-year-old was a 5-2 shot for the contest, with her run the first of the new season as she had not been seen since April.

Her final outing of last term ended with a fall in the Topham at Aintree, but prior to that she was the winner of two mares’ novice chases and was third in the Grade Two Pendil Novices’ Chase at Kempton.

In Lincolnshire she was steered by Nico de Boinville and got back into the swing of things quickly, travelling well before locking horns with Nigel Twiston-Davies’ Zambella in the home straight.

The latter was the 9-4 favourite, but it was Fantastic Lady who pushed clear to cross the line four and three-quarter lengths ahead.

The victory was made even more satisfying by the fact that owner-breeders Joss and Nicky Hanbury owned a half-sister to the mare named Casablanca Mix and found the race tricky to win as she was the runner-up in both 2019 and 2020 and fell last year when holding every chance.

“We’ve had a couple of goes in this race for the same owners but with a different mare (Casablanca Mix), so it’s fantastic to finally be able to put it to bed!” said De Boinville.

“I thought she was very gutsy. She got knocked over at the first fence on her last start in the Topham Chase and took a bit of time to work up today, but she’s very professional and will only improve. She’ll handle most ground so she looks a nice one for this sphere and beyond.”

The Hanburys added: “Casablanca Mix has gone close before so it’s really nice to win it – they’re half-sisters so it’s lovely to have a winner in this race for the family. Hopefully this is just the start and there’s a lot more good days ahead of us.

“Unfortunately the dam Latitude didn’t breed that many foals and had three years where she was barren but all of her progeny – whichever stallion you send her to – have gone on to be winners.”