Due to the weather, there are a few doubts surrounding Saturday’s meetings, with that in mind, I won’t be going into much detail with any particular races this time.
The 2 day Dublin Racing Festival is due to take place at Leopardstown on Saturday and Sunday. However, the track is currently waterlogged in places. The good news is that the weather is expected to improve over the next few days and it’s hoped the festival will go ahead as planned. Let’s hope so, as there are a large number of quality horses entered in Graded races and Handicaps, which should provide plenty of clues for the Cheltenham, Aintree and Punchestown Festivals up ahead.
In the UK there are meetings at Musselburgh, Sandown and Wetherby. There may well be issues with the Hurdles track though at Sandown, which depending on an inspection at 8am on Thursday, may end up an all Chase card only instead. The card is made up of 4 Chases and 3 Hurdle races currently, but if the Hurdles track fails the inspection, the Hurdle races will be scratched and 2 extra Chases will be added to that card. No issues are reported at Musselburgh and Wetherby. The ground shouldn’t get too bad at the Scottish venue, but I should imagine that Wetherby will get pretty soft.
The biggest race this weekend is the Grade 1 Paddy Power Gold Cup Chase (3m) at Leopardstown (3:30), having won this for the past 3 years, Galopin Des Champs is a worthy fav to land a remarkable 4 timer, but he’s short at 5/4 and doesn’t quite seem the force he used to be, so he could be vulnerable on the day. The much improved Affordable Fury beat him on decent ground in the Savills chase a month back, but the ground will be totally different on Saturday. If they run, Fact To File, Gaelic Warrior and Fastorslow would have their claims, but if you want to take on the favourite, last year’s Gold Cup winner Inothewayurthinkin should be considered, as should the Welsh raider Haiti Couleurs.
I won’t preview any Handicaps at Leopardstown or Wetherby until Saturday and I don’t see anything worth getting involved with at this stage in the 2 feature races up at Musselburgh, as the markets have those about right. For me, the market leaders Williethebuilder (3/1) and Afadil (4/1) hold the best claims in the County H’cap Hurdle (2m) at 1:43. In the Scottish Champion H’cap Chase (2m4f) at 2:20, Insurrection (7/2) and last year’s winner The Kalooki Kid (4/1) are the picks in that feature £80,000 race.
Not only are things a little up in the air at Sandown, apart from the £100,000 feature Grade 1 Scilly Isles Novices Chase (2m4f) at 2:40 and the Class 2 H’cap Chase (3m) at 3:42, few bookmakers have priced up every other other race. There are 3 Irish entries in the feature, but they each have an entry at Leopardstown as well. If they stay away, it could play into the hands of Steel Ally, but Sixmilebridge could be a bit of value e/w (especially if the Irish decide to stay at home). Nothing really takes my eye in that H’cap Chase at 3:42, but if Risk De Pluie (also in extra race should it be needed, time to be confirmed) and or Lylian take up their engagements in the Class 3 Novice H’cap Chase (2m4f) at 12:55, they may well be in my line of sight for a play on Saturday.
This ante post preview was written by Philip ‘Snowy’ Griffiths, our resident national hunt expert. The aim of these ante post columns is to educate readers on the most and least likely runners for the races in focus and to highlight any potential early value. This is not a tipping column and doesn’t necessarily reflect where the author’s official wagers are going.
