Devil looks set to give rivals the elbow
The Ted Walsh-trained gelding has looked progressive in recent outings and looks capable of recording his second success over timber in the Lydon House Catering 4-Y-0 Hurdle.
Unplaced in his first two bumper efforts, finishing seventh to Samain in a hot Curragh affair on his debut, Devil’s Elbow opened his account — at the third attempt — when proving a convincing winner of a Downpatrick bumper in May, beating subsequent winner Court Lexi.
Barry Connell’s Zamindar gelding made a winning start over hurdles two weeks later, beating Boxer Beat and Fearchar emphatically in an apparently modest maiden at Ballinrobe.
The selection’s most recent run, in a four-year-old winners’ event in Galway, provided proof that he’s continuing to improve. On that occasion, he came through late to take the runner-up berth behind all-the-way winner Virgil Earp, with Sulwaan (subsequently found to be lame) third and Banyan Tree fourth.
In the context of tonight’s race, that looks solid form and a reproduction of that effort should see him return to winning form.
Later, the Niall Madden-trained Par Five, which has been campaigning in handicap company, finishing third to Fearnwood Girl in Sligo before unseating his rider in the race won by Rainforest Magic at Galway, should appreciate the return to maiden company in tonight’s finale, the Follow Roscommon on Facebook Maiden Hurdle.
Rated 102, Par Five’s experience should prove crucial against Moiqen, rated 108 on the flat when at his prime and trained by Kevin Prendergast, and making his debut tonight for John ‘Shark’ Hanlon and Charles O’Brien’s Formal Bid, a dual-winner on the flat this summer, but rated significantly inferior to Hanlon’s six-year-old, which had not raced since February of last year.
In the flat action, the Eddie Lynam-trained Iron Major might be capable of completing a four-timer in the seven-furlong I.F.A. race Day Handicap.
Suited by a strong pace, Iron Major’s style of racing suggests that he might be capable of further improvement.
