Nolan-Cullen set for double
Dabiroun, formerly a useful sort on the level for John Oxx, should prove hard to beat in the Greenmount Maiden Hurdle.
He won a Curragh maiden first time up for Oxx and rounded off a light campaign on the flat when finishing ten lengths second behind Aidan O’Brien’s highly-rated Yeats in a Group Three at Leopardstown in April.
The Desert Prince gelding wasn’t seen again until reappearing on this track at Christmas. A big drifter in the market, Dabiroun performed with a lot of promise when two and a half lengths runner-up behind well-regarded Eric McNamara trained English import, Strangely Brown.
Gaelic Scholar gets the nap to take the first division of the Irish Stallion Farms' EBF Mares Maiden Hurdle.
Just like her stable companion, she too gave promise of better to come at Limerick last time when beaten a neck into second spot by Gaza Strip.
That winner previously cruised to victory in a Fairyhouse bumper and Gaelic Scholar might have beaten her but for blundering at the final flight.
The second section of the same contest is much more competitive. Tony Mullins' Wolseley Lady could provide the solution.
There was nothing to get overly excited about in her bumper success first time out at Tramore. But she did take a maiden point at Lingstown in Wexford very easily before that, from a rival who has since bolted in, and the booking of Ruby Walsh is an obvious plus.
It seems reasonably safe to narrow down the National Students’ Raceday Novice Hurdle to Proud To Be Irish, Kilcash-Native and Russian Buck.
Preference is for Proud To Be Irish, who looked an improved sort when winning his maiden at Fairyhouse on New Year’s Day unextended by seven lengths.
