The second day of the Irish Guineas meeting sees the fillies take centre stage. Alpine Star wasn’t declared for the Irish 1000 Guineas and that will provide encouragement for supporters of stablemate, and favourite, Albigna.
Peaceful will carry my cash. I have a theory that this filly may be at a tactical advantage. There’s no obvious front runner here. The trip is a minimum for Peaceful. If jumping in front, from a handy draw, she could prove hard to pass.
She’s an impressive specimen who should come on bundles this season. Her maiden win, and slightly unlucky second in a backend stakes race, came on deep ground. Her pedigree promises improvement for the quicker ground. Ballydoyle have really hit the ground running since the resumption of racing. They can bag another Classic on Saturday.
Curragh 16:00
A stayers handicap kicks off the card. Jerandme makes some appeal. He has proven a consistent sort in a handful of bumper, hurdles and flat starts. He still looked inexperienced when prevailing narrowly in a Dundalk handicap last time out. The form of that race is largely untested though the second did go very close on his next start. I
t took a long time for Jerandme to find top gear that day. The long home straight in the Curragh promises to suit. The upshot of that narrow win is the handicapper hasn’t gone to town. This horse still has plenty of scope at the trip. Hopefully he will get a positive ride to take advantage of stamina reserves. If so, he should go close.
Curragh 17:45
Zippity is another relatively unexposed sort. She runs in the 5f sprint handicap. She has stepped forward plenty in winning and finishing second on her last couple of starts. A slow start didn’t help in that runner up effort. She’s a bit flighty and the break will be important on Saturday. What can you do though?
Sprinting fillies lean more towards the cray-cray side than most horses. I will console myself that she should have more improvement to come and looks fairly handicapped. That consolation will be enough for me to part with my hard earned cash.
Curragh 18:45
Lancaster House is a short-price fav like his stablemate will be in the next. Both should win though. Lancaster House looked very promising last season before suffering an injury on his final start in Leopardstown. That race on Irish Champions Weekend looked red hot. It was striking how strong in the betting the Lancaster was.
He can regain an upward trajectory here at the expense of the penalised Speak In Colours.
Curragh 19:45
Magic Wand is also penalised in the finale. The one mile trip is on the sharp side too. They’re the negatives. The glaring positive is that she’s much the best horse in the race. A couple for your multiples perhaps.
Curragh 18:15
Edification will be a much bigger price in the 1m 4f. He looks well handicapped based on a luckless fourth in a premier handicap in Leopardstown last September. A couple of below par efforts to finish last season can be forgiven for various reasons.
Gavin Ryan takes off a handy 5lbs. I’m not totally convinced he will get the strong gallop he desires but there are a couple of pace angles, so hopefully this race will be run at a decent clip.
We should be getting a price that compensates for some doubts.
*Prices on our snazzy new bet widget is bang up to date.
Read More:
- Horse Racing tips: A runner by runner guide to Saturday’s Irish 1,000 Guineas
- Horse Racing tips: A fab 5 from Aidan O’Brien to slot into your tracker
- Horse Racing tips: Frank Hickey’s 15 horses to follow for the 2020 Flat season
