Lee happy for Diva to take her chance against Kirby’s Lady Buttons

HAPPY DIVA is set to take on Lady Buttons in a post-Christmas cracker at Doncaster.

Kerry Lee’s stable star won the BetVictor Gold Cup at Cheltenham in November, but the trainer decided against chasing a bigrace double in Saturday’s Caspian Caviar Gold Cup in preference of giving the mare more time to recover.

Instead she will revert to her own sex for a race also being targeted by the smart Lady Buttons, trained by Catterick handler Phil Kirby.

Lee said: “Happy Diva is great. We’re looking to go to Doncaster at the end of the month for a Listed Chase (Yorkshire Silver Vase Mares’ Chase, December 29).

“The Cheltenham race (Caspian Caviar Gold Cup) would have been too quick.

“It was an entry just in case she bounced back, but a week before it I decided it wouldn’t be happening.

“She won the Listed Lady Protectress Mares’ Chase at Huntingdon

last season and she’ll be going for that again, too.

“I think she gets a 4lb in that for her win at Cheltenham, they are not cumulative, so it’s a 4lb penalty against mares. In my mind that’s the way forward with her, certainly this season.”

■ Paisley Park will face a maximum of five rivals when he bids for back-to-back victories in the Marsh Hurdle at Ascot.

Emma Lavelle’s stable star dominated the staying hurdling division last season – winning each of his five starts, including this Grade One contest, better known as the Long Walk, as well as the Stayers’ Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival in March.

■ Today’s National Hunt meeting at Lingfield has been abandoned due to a waterlogged track, it was confirmed yesterday morning.