Excalibur to cut down rivals
Now a four year-old, the son of Danehill is unbeaten in two races, but faces easily his stiffest test to date in this Listed event.
He won his maiden at the Curragh last season by 15 lengths and was almost as impressive on his reappearance at Tipperary in July.
The selection produced a fine performance then, defying the steadier of 10-4 to easily beat Lord Admiral by six lengths.
Excalibur faces two progressive opponents now in High Priestess and Orpington and may have to be every bit as good as we think he is to deal with them!
Pat Hughes’ Arachine rates a safe wager in the Polly Pearl-Total Solutions Maiden Hurdle.
This is a weak contest and he strips on the back of two decent efforts, finishing second over flights to Johnjoe’s Express here and scoring on the level at Tralee.
Dermot Weld’s Moonlight Dance looks best in the Irish Stallion Farms’ EBF Fillies Maiden. The daughter of Sinndar had Zanadja a length and a half behind in fifth spot when fourth to Saoire in what looked a better race than this at Leopardstown.
The dropped-in-class Zelkova gets the nod in the www.galwayraces.com Auction Race. Very impressive when making all to score at Gowran Park, Zelkova then finished a creditable fifth behind the more than useful Elusive Double at Leopardstown.
Bassett Tiger, found to be lame when disappointing at Cork last time, but in good shape when recording two easy successes at Wexford previously, can shrug off top weight in the Galway City Vintners’ Novice Chase.
