Team Foster / Cullentra on the Chletenham scoreboard

The winners keep rolling for Denise Foster and the team at Cullentra House in Longwood with a first on the opening day of the Cheltenham Festival.

Jack Kennedy partnered Black Tears to victory in the Close Brothers Mares’ Hurdle winning by head to deny the Willie Mullins-trained favourite Concertista in a thrilling finish to the two-and-a-half-mile contest.

Foster took over the reins at Cullentra House officially on Monday of last week and with this most recent winner now has seven winners to her credit.

She had a treble at Navan on Saturday and a winner at Wexford, her first for Cullentra, Naas and yesterday at Punchestown.

The victory will be a tremendous boost for all the staff at Cullentra House and a reflection of the effort they continue to put in to make sure the success is maintained while Gordon Elliott serves the suspension that was imposed two weeks ago.

"We’ve gone through a bit of a tough time, but we’ve kept going and showed that today," commented the winning jockey.