Progressive Stonemaster should be hard to beat
Back to winning form when beating Made In Taipan at Leopardstown last time, the Dessie Hughes-trained, 149-rated, six-year-old looks progressive and should prove tough to beat.
Stonemaster, whose earlier form included solid efforts behind the likes of Shinrock Paddy at Naas and Voler La Vedette at Navan, holds Catch Me (third), Won In The Dark (fourth) and On The Way Out (fifth) on Leopardstown form.
And Psycho, which was challenging and looking a threat, meets the selection on 5lb, worse terms this time. An infrequent winner, although suited by the flat track, Psycho might have to give best to Stonemaster.
Drying ground should give the well-regarded Do Brazil a big chance of opening his account for Edward O’Grady in the bumper.
Fourth on his debut at Punchestown, he filled a similar spot behind Cheltenham Bumper third Aupcharlie at Naas last time and, with J P Magnier again on board, should go close.
Meanwhile, Willie Mullins should be back in the winner’s enclosure at his local track, Gowran Park, today with Kerb Appeal in the www.gowranpark.ie Handicap Hurdle.
Third to Square Sphere in a Pertemps Qualifier at Punchestown in January, Kerb Appeal should not be troubled by dropping back to two and a half miles and has a solid chance.
And Mullins’ Johnny McGeeney, which recouped earlier losses when scoring well at Naas last time, might not cope with the Gordon Elliott-trained Final Victory, which looked a decent recruit to hurdling when scoring on his Irish debut at Navan, in the Ballyhale Novice Hurdle.
The 2011 flat season opens tomorrow at the Curragh, when Adilapour, winner of Gowran Park maiden in his only juvenile start last September, might land the Gabriel Curran Memorial Madrid Hasndicap for the re-united partnership of John Oxx and Johnny Murtagh.
