Saturday, November 07, 2009
THE major prize at Down Royal today is the Grade 1 JNwine.com Champion Chase, but there’s no solid reason top be overly optimistic about finding the winner so let’s concentrate, for the moment, on the Grade 2 ladbrokes.com Chase.
This holds promise of a cracking duel between Forpadydeplasterer and Herecomesthetruth, with the former readily preferred.
The less rain that falls the better for Tom Cooper’s charge, who handles heavy ground, but is more effective on a decent surface.
He showed his true colours at the Cheltenham Festival in March, finding plenty for Barry Geraghty pressure to land the Arkle Chase by a short head from Kalahari King.
Back in third sport, a further five lengths away, was Planet Of Sound and he boosted the form when landing a competitive contest at Exeter recently.
Herecomesthetruth will surely take them along at a swinging gallop, but Forpadydeplaster to cut him down when Geraghty presses the button is the prediction.
In contrast to Forpadydeplaster, the more rain which falls the better for Notre Pere, who is a tentative choice in the feature. He kept going forward last season, numbering among his wins the Welsh National at Chepstow and a Grade 1 at the Punchestown Festival. There are plenty of dangers, however, and the fact Notre Pere ran poorly first time out last season, at this meeting, is a concern.
The nap falls on Dessie Hughes’ ex-winning pointer, Magnanimity, in the Bumper. The five-year-old made a fine start on the racecourse when chasing home Luska Lad over flights at Galway 12 days ago.
Willie Mullins spoke favourably about Cadspeed at his open day on Monday and the dual bumper winner gets the nod in the A Bartlett and Sons Maiden Hurdle.
At Navan tomorrow, the progressive Noble Prince can make a successful move into the big league by landing the Grade 2 Lismullen Hurdle.
The former French horse strolled to victory, in a moderate contest, on his reappearance at Naas last Saturday and is one to have on your side until beaten!
Big Zeb is hard enough to oppose in the Grade 2 ladbrokes.com Fortria Chase. He may be flattered by how close he got to Master Minded at Punchestown in April, but it was still a fair old effort.
Catch Me made a satisfactory debut over fences at Cork and can build on that in the Irish Stallion Farms’ EBF Novice Chase.
Weapon’s Amnesty, sure to be all the better for his first outing of the campaign, and first over fences, when third to Copsiano at Punchestown, gets the nap in the Glenview Stud Beginners Chase at Limerick tomorrow.
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