Brave Inca can pass AIG test
It brings together eight cracking horses and they all have a life, which is quite amazing in a high-class Grade 1. Logic dictates, however, that whatever finishes in front of Brave Inca will win.
Colm Murphy’s powerful warrior came right back to his best on this track at Christmas when partnered for the first time by Ruby Walsh.
He travelled beautifully through that contest and, typically, wasn’t found wanting when the questions were popped in the straight.
Brave Inca found loads for pressure and was a comfortable length and a half to the good over Iktitaf, who renews rivalry, at the line.
Macs Joy, beaten a length into second by Brave Inca in the Champion Hurdle at Cheltenham in March, makes a belated seasonal debut.
The eight-year-old oozes class, but this is a stiff ask on his return. If he can do the business then Macs Joy will surely be promoted to the head of the Champion Hurdle ante-post list!
The four-year-old Lounaos is the dark horse and very difficult to slot in. She gets a whopping 19lbs from most of these and has scored twice over flights with a lot in hand.
Brave Inca in front of Iktitaf is the hopeful prediction, in a race which is set to answer many questions.
The progressive Dessie Hughes-trained Schindlers Hunt, left out of the entries for the Arkle at Cheltenham due to a clerical error, has to be a confident choice to land the Bailey’s Arkle Perpetual Cup.
A useful hurdler, he is far better at this game and was hugely impressive when slamming subsequent winner, Hear The Echo, to the tune of ten lengths at Leopardstown.
“He goes on any ground and I think he’s a very good horse,” said Hughes.
“From the start he impressed us and we thought he would only get better.
“We would have loved to have run him in the Arkle but we can’t do anything about that now.
“I think this horse will go on any ground as long as its not firm.”
Most attention in the 24-runner Frank Conroy Memorial Maiden Hurdle will focus on Hairy Molly, having his first pop over flights and of the campaign.
A triple bumper winner, he produced his best performance with a game defeat of Pressgang at the Cheltenham Festival.
The seven-year-old has had his problems, but would hardly be risked now unless shrewd handler, Joe Crowley, was entirely happy with his gelding.
At Navan today, Deep Thinker is entrusted with the nap in the Design Maiden Hurdle, despite the fact he has to face a whopping 29 rivals.
It’s a heat which is very much about quantity, though, and the selection is the one they all have to beat, on the evidence of his creditable second to Charlie Yardbird at Leopardstown.
Francis Flood’s Bronx Girl is fancied to provide the answer to the New Arkle Bar Maiden Hurdle.
She showed great battling qualities to win bumpers at Navan and Punchestown and it is well to note that the first two races of her life were over flights.
Sublimity, whose trainer, John Carr, has the Champion Hurdle in mind, can hardly be opposed in the Navan Golf Club Open For Membership Hurdle.
He has been sidelined by an infection, but is different class to these, on the basis of his fourth behind Noland in the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle at Cheltenham.
