Geraghty booked for Shakespeare ride

Lincolnshire trainer Steve Gollings will run his stable star Royal Shakespeare in the Evening Herald Champion Novice Hurdle at the Punchestown Festival on Tuesday with Barry Geraghty in the saddle.

The imposing five-year-old, who gave Gollings his biggest success when beating Contraband by a neck in the Premier Convenience Stores Top Novices’ Hurdle at Aintree, was also entered at the big Irish meeting on Friday.

But the trainer said today: “Royal Shakespeare will run in the two miler on Tuesday rather than over two and a half on Friday and Barry Geraghty rides.

“It is a shame Robert Thornton can’t take the ride again, but he has commitments to his boss Alan King. Barry is not a bad substitute to have, though.

“The horse travelled over today on the fast boat and is very, very well. He’s in brilliant form.

“I know the general feeling is that Brave Inca is going to run on Tuesday as well, but that didn’t really enter the equation as far as we were concerned, it’s going to be a hell of a race whether he runs or not.

“The ground is drying up and we’ve taken the view that if it’s not broke, don’t fix it and two miles looks to be his optimum at the moment.

“We were going to put him away after Aintree, but he’s only going to be a novice for this year.”

The meeting is expected to start with going on the easy side of good.

Racecourse manager Richie Galway said: “The track is in great shape. The ground today is yielding to soft, yielding in places.

“We may have some showers and small amounts of rain early in the week but it is a pretty settled forecast.

“With a bit of luck we are expecting to start on the easy side of good and it may come good by the end of the week. I think there’s enough moisture in it to keep it that way.”