Punchestown Tips: Eskylane can make winning start to season
Eskylane sets the standard in the opener at Punchestown. Picture: Healy Racing.
The Sherry Fitzgerald Brady O’Flaherty Maiden Hurdle which opens this afternoon’s card in Punchestown is a hot-looking contest, but Eskylane sets the standard and can make a winning start to the season.
A point to point winner, Gordon Elliott’s runner finished in front of subsequent Champion Bumper runner-up Appreciate It when just touched off by Assemble on his track debut. He then won his bumper next time and ran a huge race to finish fifth to Ferny Hollow in the Champion Bumper.
That marks him out as a high-class prospect for the season ahead and he can take this at the expense of Buddy Rich and Barbary Master.
A Wave Of The Sea can follow up his beginners’ chase success when he contests the Grade 3 Idealgraphix.ie Branding Irish Racecourses Novice Chase.
Joseph O’Brien’s horse was a Grade 1 winner over hurdles and, after a promising first effort at Killarney, won his beginners’ at Kilbeggan with little fuss. He remains open to plenty in this sphere and, as a four-year-old, he receives weight from all his rivals bar one.
And that one, Zarkareva, may prove the biggest danger. The four-year-old filly was impressive on her second start over fences, at Sligo. While it is difficult to say just what she may have achieved that day – the runner-up has since won readily over fences but jumped terribly at Sligo – Zarkareva is very much unexposed in this sphere and thus not to be taken lightly.
The Grade 3 Irish Daily Star Salutes Our Frontline Heroes Chase looks wide open but a chance is taken on Shattered Love, who receives plenty of weight from all her rivals. One of four for Gordon Elliott in the eight-runner race, she is the mount of Mark Walsh, who was on top for her only win of last season.
She has a good record fresh and can make the most of the weight she receives from stablemates The Storyteller and Alpha Des Obeaux.
1:15 Eskylane (nap)
1:45 Old Town Road
2:15 Red Gerry
2:50 A Wave Of The Sea (nb)
3:25 Shattered Love
4:00 Sunrise Lady
4:35 Mars Harper
1:15 Buddy Rich
1:45 Wait Here
2:15 Rebel Waltz
2:50 Zarkareva
3:25 The Storyteller
4:00 Bishops Quarter
4:35 Gordon’s Jet
