Essex can speed to victory
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!
Essex ran a fine race over a mile and a half at Gowran Park last time, finishing two lengths second to Ease The Way in a 15-runner event.
That was his first outing since a tremendous performance at the Punchestown Festival back in April when beaten a short head and a length into third spot behind Cherub and Made in Japan in a Grade One four-year-old hurdle.
If Peter Casey’s Knock Abbey Castle puts her best foot forward she will make short work of the opposition in the Pat’s Centra Race.
She has some excellent efforts to her credit, and a couple that are not so good as well, so, hopefully, the Knock Abbey Castle who was beaten a length into second spot by Aidan O’Brien’s well-regarded Mullins Bay at the Curragh on Sunday is the one who turns up now.
Pat Flynn’s Marko Jadeo is difficult to oppose in the Lis Maura Farmshop Claiming Race. He humped 10-0 into a close third behind Budelli in a competitive handicap at the Curragh on Sunday and this is much easier.
Second in that particular race was Senor Benny and, off the same mark, his chance is obvious in the Apollo Print Solutions Handicap.
