Essex can speed to victory

IT’S bucket and spade time again with the annual outing on Laytown beach the focus of attention in Irish racing this afternoon.

Six races, a maximum of ten runners and no contest beyond seven furlongs is the menu. But a winner pays the same here as anywhere else and Ruby Walsh is fancied to enjoy a rare success on the level aboard Essex in the Gilna’s Cottage Maiden.

The distance here is well short of the selection’s best, but, on the credit side, there are sound reasons for thinking he is the fastest horse in the contest!