Tarfasha should be hard to beat
The daughter of Teofilo made an eye-catching debut at Leopardstown 12 days ago and can surely be expected to build on that.
There were only three horses in the contest and one of them, Aidan O’Brien’s Montjeu colt, Geoffrey Chaucer, arrived with a big reputation.
He was backed as if defeat was out of the question and went off at 2-7. Geoffrey Chaucer did deliver, but had to dig deep to resist the selection by a neck.
Tarfasha certainly wasn’t knocked about in the closing stages by Pat Smullen and it will be a surprise should plenty of use not be made of her now, considering she is bred to be a stout stayer.
Feature event is the very valuable Topaz Mile Handicap and Weld could also have the answer to a real puzzle with the progressive Tandem.
He went up 9lbs for beating subsequent winner, Fortify, by three parts of a length at Leopardstown and that was probably harsh enough.
But Tandem got ten furlongs really well then and that is a big positive, over an extended mile on this stiff track.
Ruby Walsh teams up with Paul Nicholls’ Woolcombe Folly, in the Latin Quarter Chase, and that’s of obvious interest.
Woolcombe Folly, second behind Bobown at Market Rasen last time, is easily the highest rated in the contest, but whether it is a true reflection of how much he actually has in hand remains to be seen.
Preference is for Mouse Morris’ Rathlin, who is 12lbs wrong with Woolcombe Folly. He was impressive when scoring by 19 lengths at Punchestown in May and is likely to ask questions of his rivals from a fair way out.
