El Salvador can defy odds and complete hat-trick
The handicapper’s ratings clearly indicate Dermot Weld’s Voleuse de Couers will be very hard to beat.
She has just 4lbs in hand of Military Bowl, but that ex-French flat horse is impossible to fancy on his hurdles form in this country.
After that Voleuse de Couers is between 12lbs and 19lbs clear of her other four rivals. In the case of El Salvador it is 14lbs.
But Weld’s horses have been very slow to come to hand so far this season and a watching brief is surely the best policy with a mare having a first outing of the campaign.
In contrast, El Salvador is in cracking form, having won impressively on two occasions of late on the all-weather at Dundalk. He will get every yard of the extended 12 furlongs and is fancied to complete the hat-trick.
Aidan O’Brien trains El Salvador and can also score with Hanky Panky and Marchese Marconi.
Hanky Panky runs in the opener, the Irish Stallion Farms’ EBF Fillies Maiden, which houses some promising types and would not be out of place at the Curragh or Leopardstown.
The half-sister to Giants Causeway got bogged down in the mud at the Curragh on her final appearance as a juvenile, fourth to Seolan in a Listed race in October, and may well be crying out for a decent surface.
Marchese Marconi looked far from straightforward when failing to justify odds of 1- 5 behind Fairview Star at Dundalk last week, but is hard to oppose in the Festival Of Speed Maiden. This is a bad race and he is now fitted with cheekpieces.
Kevin Prendergast’s Silver Lightening, who stayed on to real effect when runner-up behind Jim Bolger’s Alpinist at the Curragh on his debut, can go one better in the UL Racing Society Median Auction Maiden.
