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Lizzie Kelly shines in Newbury highlight

Lizzie KellyLizzie Kelly
© Photo Healy Racing

Agrapart gave Lizzie Kelly another big-race success when impressively winning the Betfair Hurdle at Newbury.

The first woman rider in Britain to land a Grade One when taking the Feltham Novices' Chase on Tea For Two at Kempton on Boxing Day, the 5lb claimer came out on top in one of the most competitive handicaps in the calendar.

Dicosimo led to the first but his jumping let him down and he fell at the fourth.

Sternrubin then went on but he could not last the furious pace and was eventually pulled up.

Runner-up Starchitect did a lot of the donkey work but a bad mistake at the final flight cost him his winning chance as Kelly brought Agrapart (16-1) to challenge.

The five-year-old, trained by her stepfather Nick Williams, drew away on the run-in to win by 11 lengths.

Flying Angel was another length and a quarter away in third, with the unlucky-in-running Affaire D'Honneur coming from a long way back to snatch fourth place.

Hot favourite Blazer was disappointing for Willie Mullins, with Noel Meade's Waxies Dargle finishing best of the Irish contingent in fifth.

Kelly said: "It's a surprise, in a way, because of the kind of race this is.

"I got a good run, but I have to say this is down to the stable staff at home.

"This horse is a little tricky and they've put in a lot of hard work.

"I thought he had a lovely weight. He's lovely horse and we've always thought a lot of him.

"He's a tricky animal but he works so hard."

Kelly went on: "Going round the home bend I was a bit stuck, but when we got out of trouble he responds and he fights and lengthens.

"I knew from jumping the second-last we were going to win."

Williams said: "He was impressive up at Aintree (in December) and we started thinking about this race after that.

"We needed to give him one more run for the experience and we thought he ran well in the Tolworth.

"He always had enough kick from the start. We knew we had to get a good position early and Lizzie was very much tuned up to that.

"Lizzie has won some big handicaps if you think about Haydock and the Lanzarote at Kempton (Tea For Two last season).

"As a rider she's got better and better. It was a very good performance. Lizzie was very cool and has a very good head for the big occasion.

"We haven't entered him at Cheltenham as we didn't think it was his track.

"He's very much a soft- or heavy-ground horse as well, so we didn't make an entry in any of the novices' there."