Swan has grounds for concern at Galway

Charlie Swan admits he is in the dark as to how Zaralabad and Rajik will handle the testing conditions when they line up in the carlton.ie/galwaycity Handicap tomorrow evening.

Former John Oxx inmate Zaralabad opened his account for the campaign in impressive style at Limerick on fast ground last month, while Rajik is chasing a hat-trick following successes at Gowran Park and Tipperary.

“Hopefully they’ve both got a chance, but it just depends how they handle the ground as it’s going to be soft,” said Swan.

“I was delighted with Zaralabad at Limerick last time but the handicapper decided to put him up another 5lb five weeks after the race. We appealed against that but we lost the appeal.

“Rajik is progressing well – he’s only a small horse but he’s tough. There’s very little between them really and it just depends which horse handles the ground better.

“Rajik might handle it a little bit better but time will tell.”

Sophocles is out for back-to-back festival successes.

James Leavy’s grey, who has never really built on on the promise he showed to finish second in the 2007 Cheltenham Champion Bumper, was nonetheless a wide-margin winner of the the Guinness/St James’s Gate Race at last year’s meeting.

“He had a nice warm-up in the Ladies Derby at the Curragh and he’d have a squeak,” said Leavy.

“He’d be the main one of ours. We have had a slow start runner-wise but things are going OK and we might have a few other runners in the smaller maidens and handicaps.”