Cobra Queen a second Roscommon winner for de Bromhead

After getting off the mark over fences at Tramore last month, Cobra Queen (7/2) folIowed up in the Irish Stallion Farms EBF Mares Handicap Chase at Roscommon.

After Quantum Quest in the three-mile handicap hurdle, it was a second winner of the afternoon for Henry de Bromhead.

As she so often does, Kilashee raced into a clear lead and was 30 lengths ahead with a circuit to race as the winner was towards the fore in the chasing pack.

Darragh O'Keeffe 's mount began to close from three out and, as the leader tired from the next, Cobra Queen jumped the last upsides before forging clear to beat Kilashee by eight and a half lengths.

Robbie Power, assistant to winning trainer Henry de Bromhead, said of the Matt Fitzgerald-owned six-year-old: “It was very similar to early on (Quantum Quest). Fair play to Darragh, he was cool.

“He was happy that Kilashee had gone plenty quick enough, I wasn’t so sure in the stands.

“From the turn-in I thought we had a good chance of getting there and to be fair to the mare she was very honest.

“She jumped super today and had something to aim at up the straight, which really suited her.

“She’s a strong stayer, she wants three miles really, so a strongly run two-five was right up her street.

“We’ll see what the handicapper does. It’s a hard race to work out with the way it panned out, with the strong pace.

“She likes a bit of nice ground and as long as it stays good we’ll look for something similar.”