It has been announced that the Colm Murphy’s trained race mare Voler La Vadette has been retired and is to return to her owner and breeder Margaret Brophy.
Quevega is now the 3/1 favourite to win the World Hurdle at Cheltenham with Boylesports.com
The mare was a winner of 13 of her 27 starts, 10 of which were at Listed or Stakes level including the Hatton’s Grace Hurdle and Leopardstown Christmas Hurdle. In her thirteen victories she amassed prize money of almost €500,000.
For many, Voler La Vadette is best remembered for challenging Big Bucks at the last flight in the Ladbrokes World Hurdle. She almost caused a major upset before only going down by two lengths and looking like the winner until being outstayed by the champion.
The 9-y-0 mare’s season so far was less than promising. She was readily overturned by Whatyouthink at Navan when 1-7 favourite and then a distant fifth on what was to be her final start in the woodiesdiy.com Christmas Hurdle on December 28.
Voler La Vedette failed to get in foal when visiting the stallion Presenting in 2011 but returned to racing for her best ever season.
“She has been phenomenal for us and she is a very, very valuable broodmare now,” said Murphy.
“We’ve had some great days with her. It was a shame she couldn’t build on last year but she has gone back to her owner’s place now and she’ll be really missed by us.”
She will also be remembered for a huge mistake by a leading betting exchange, A monster sum of £1,642,094 was matched in running at a price of 29 (28-1) and was still 28/1 when she was well clear and could not be beaten after the last hurdle. All bets were voided due to a technical failure.
