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INPHO/Lorraine O'Sullivan
Horse Racing

Star fades as Voler la Vedette retired to stud

“We decided that she has done enough,” trainer Colm Murphy said yesterday.

VOLER LA VEDETTE, one of Irish horse racing’s star mares, has been retired following a disappointing start to the season.

Trainer Colm Murphy confirmed on Monday that the nine-year-old, winner of the Grade 1 Hatton’s Grace Hurdle in 2011 and runner-up to Big Buck’s in the World Hurdle at Cheltenham last year, is now expected to go to stud.

“Voler La Vedette was a very good mare who did us proud over the past few years, but she failed to run up to form in three starts this season and we decided that she has done enough,” Murphy told the Racing Post.

She retires with a record that includes five Grade 2 wins and over €300,000 in prize money.

But after putting in a career-best performance to chase staying superstar Big Buck’s all the way to the finish line last March, she failed to produce anything like that effort in the early part of this season.

Her final run came at the Leopardstown Festival where she trailed off into a distant fifth in the Grade 2 Christmas Hurdle, 13 lengths behind winner Monksland.

The news blows open the betting for this year’s World Hurdle renewal, a race already deprived of its headline act following Big Buck’s season-ending injury.

Willie Mullins’ wondermare Quevega, winner of the last four runnings of the OLBG Mares’ Hurdle, is currently the bookmakers’ favourite at 9/2.

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