Simenon ready to make the grade

Simenon will be strongly fancied to graduate successfully from the novice ranks in the Friday Evening Racing Hurdle at Cork this evening.

An impressive winner over course and distance in January, Simenon has since acquitted himself well in graded company, although he flopped in the Supreme Novices at Cheltenham, when trailing in last of nineteen behind Cinders And Ashes.

Runner up to the classy Trifolium in a Grade 2 at Punchestown prior to his Cheltenham trip, the five-year-old Marju gelding returned to finish third behind Alderwood and Trifolium in the Grade 1 Evening Herald Champion Novice Hurdle at the Punchestown Festival.