AFTER a relatively quiet period, Brian Hughes rode three winners over four days in the period under review. The first came last Thursday week at Ffos Las when he won the two-mile handicap hurdle on the Donald McCain-trained Noah And The Ark.

At the same meeting, Gordon Elliott sent out Braid Blue to justify odds-on favouritism in the three-mile novices’ hurdle. Ridden by Richard Johnson for Philip McBurney of McBurney Transport, the six-year-old Gold Well gelding, who was bringing up a hat trick over timber, was bred by Danny Doran out of the unraced Grand Lodge mare Outo’Theblue.

Elliott supplied the Armagh Bhoys Partnership with a win on Sunday at Stratford where their six-year-old Arakan gelding, Rakhine State, won for the second time in three starts since late April when landing the extended two-and-a-quarter-mile selling hurdle.

Getting off the mark on her 10th start at Leicester on Wednesday was the Paul George-trained Lippy Lady. The three-year-old Bungle Inthejungle filly, who was bred by McCracken Farms, is the second of four recorded foals out of the unraced Sakhee mare Sayrah, who comes from the family of Tabassum, Crystal Downs and Mubtaker.