Merchant to take advantage of drop in class

MERCHANT ROYAL is a token nap choice in the Kedrah House Stud Well Chosen Novice Hunters Chase, on what looks a difficult card for punters at Tipperary tonight.

A race of this nature is not normally something you would associate with an inmate of Dermot Weld’s, but he trains the seven-year-old for his son, Kris, and shouldn’t be far away.

Successful in a point-to-point, Merchant Royal was thrown in at the deep end at the Punchestown festival.