Pirate Ship set to plunder prize

ONCE-raced Pirate Ship is the nap choice to give David Wachman his fourth winner of the season in the Brubaker’s Bar Race at Dundalk tonight.

The son of Hawk Wing made a very promising start at Leopardstown and, granted normal improvement, is going to be hard to beat now.

It took a little while for the penny to drop with the colt then and he had less than a clear run in the straight.

Pirate Ship, however, came home really well to be beaten a length and a half by Rockhampton. The form was boosted when Rockhampton finished a creditable third behind John Gosden’s Nehaam in an 18-runner £216,000 plus to the winner ten furlongs contest at Newmarket on Wednesday.

Dropping down two furlongs in trip is probably not ideal, but that will surely be more than offset by the valuable experience gained by Pirate Ship first time out.

Jim Bolger is the leading trainer in Ireland at the moment, with 12 successes, and can add another with Coolcullen Times in the Cuchulainn Crystal Handicap.

The son of Rock Of Gibraltar won easily on this track last Saturday, by two and a half lengths, and went up 13lbs.

But since he began life in handicaps off a low base anyway that may not be sufficient to prevent him going in again!

Glowing, who has finished last in her latest two outings, has to get the vote in the Irish Stallion Farms’ EBF Fillies Race.

One of her rivals, Ridgetime Anna, doesn’t have a rating, with just one moderate effort thus far, but the simple facts are that the selection has between 12lbs and 28lbs in hand of the other four runners.