The Rebecca Curtis-trained Lisnagar Oscar has claimed an upset win in the Stayer’s Hurdle at Cheltenham.
The seven-year-old won the feature on the third day of the famous four-day jumps festival which has attracted large, although slightly smaller than usual, crowds despite other sports being closed to spectators over coronavirus concerns.
Lisnagar Oscar was sent off a 50-1 chance to claim the unthinkable with Paisley Park the 4-6 favourite.
Jockey Adam Wedge was quietly confident Lisnagar Oscar could outperform his price tag as the race developed.
“Apple’s Jade had gone off very hard and on the first circuit I was a little bit cold and I was struggling to travel,” Wedge said.
“The second circuit he came alive underneath me coming down that hill and I was able to fill him up all the way down the hill.
“After the last I was praying he would keep galloping, and he did. He wore his heart on his sleeve and tried his heart out.
“He was all out and I don’t say he had plenty in the tank at the end of the Stayers’, but he has done it well.”
There may have been no fairytale third success at the meeting for the Willie Mullins-trained Faugheen, running this time in the Marsh Novices’ Chase, but stablemate Min finally laid to rest his Festival ghost at the fourth attempt with a battling victory in the Ryanair Chase.
