Closutton collects on Downpatrick debut

The well-bred Closutton – who carries the same name as the all-conquering County Carlow yard – made a winning debut for Willie and Patrick Mullins in the bumper at Downpatrick.

Sent off the 6-4 favourite having been relatively weak in the market in the final few minutes before the race, the five-year-old Shantou mare was in the rear for most of the contest.

She began to make a move before the turn for home, but Walks The Talk appeared to have slipped the field on the front end.

In that familiar drive position, Patrick Mullins began to get a tune out of the sister to Grade One winner Airlie Beach and she eventually got up late on to win by half a length.

“Very green early on. She’s very small, probably the smallest in the yard, and we have been training her very softly,” said the winning rider, who named the mare and has leased her to the Whitegrass Racing Syndicate.

“Her dam (Screaming Witness) was my first ever ride on the racetrack and she’s the eighth bumper winner from eight runners – one of them (foals) never ran. We have one more – we have a Jukebox Jury four-year-old sister, she’s the last one. Hopefully, we can bring up the nine-timer!

“It is a great pedigree. They are natural racehorses, they want to win.

“I’d like to think there is improvement, she wasn’t trained like one of ours normally (is) and you can see that in how I rode her. You’d like to think there is improvement there fitness-wise and sharpness-wise.”