Go for well-drawn Witty Repartee
The daughter of Iffraaj made a promising start at Leopardstown 12 days ago and there is every reason to think she will build on that. She had a bad draw then and never shaped as a possible winner. Witty Repartee did, however, stay on nicely in the straight to finish third behind Diylawa and Shorana.
In contrast to Leopardstown, she now has the best draw in one and it will be a surprise should Chris Hayes not make the best use of that advantage, on a filly that got nine furlongs in good style last time.
Damian English’s Ask Dad landed a gamble here on Wednesday night and has to be the fancy to follow up in the Crowne Plaza Hotel Race And Stay Handicap.
He scored by an easy four and a half lengths and stepping up another furlong in trip is hardly a worry, under a mandatory 5lbs penalty. Ask Dad goes up by 12lbs in the future.
Michael Halford’s horses are in terrific form and Dalewari can prove another for him in the Irish Stallion Farms’ EBF Median Auction Maiden.
The son of Desert Style has been given plenty of time to mature, absent since taking third behind Dermot Weld’s Postulation and Aidan O’Brien’s Archangel Raphael at Killarney in August.
