Apple’s Jade shortens for Mares’ Hurdle after Ricci retires Vroum Vroum Mag

Apple’s Jade, potentially the final leg of a short-priced four-timer on the first day of the Cheltenham Festival, contracted further in the betting for the Mares’ Hurdle on Wednesday following the news Vroum Vroum Mag, the 8-1 fourth-favourite, has been retired after failing to convince Willie Mullins she would do herself justice.

Vroum Vroum Mag won the Mares’ Hurdle in 2016 and finished a close second behind Apple’s Jade 12 months ago and was once described by Mullins as the versatile “supersub” in his team as she could compete at a high level over hurdles and in chases.

The nine-year-old started her career for the stable with six consecutive successes over fences, then swiftly progressed into a Grade One winner after reverting to hurdles in the 2015-16 season. Vroum Vroum Mag recorded Mullins’s eighth successive success in the Mares’ Hurdle and then followed up in the Punchestown Champion Hurdle a few weeks later.

A third top-level success followed in the Christmas Hurdle at Leopardstown in December 2016, but she could finish only one-and-a-half lengths second to Apple’s Jade at Cheltenham three months later and was then seventh of 10 when favourite to repeat her Punchestown success – the only occasion in 15 starts for Mullins when Vroum Vroum Mag was out of the first two.

Source: theguardian