Irish racing tips: Toy and Mother Earth can make winning returns
Mother Earth won the Newmarket 1000 Guineas last season. Picture: Healy Racing
The Flat season kicks off in the Curragh and Aidan O’Brien has numerous good chances on the programme, most notably with Toy and Mother Earth.
Toy gets the nap to make a winning return in the Cavalor Equine Nutrition Fillies’ & Mares’ Maiden. The full sister to Gleneagles, Marvellous, Happily, Joan Of Arc, Vatican City and a couple more winners made her debut late last October and showed real promise and a good attitude to finish runner-up to Dissociate.
Quite clearly, she has tremendous scope for improvement and can take this en route to better things. The most obvious danger is Perfect Thunder, who followed up a good debut behind Alizarine with a runner-up finish behind West Coast. She is another likely improver and will also go close.
Mother Earth, who won the Newmarket 1000 Guineas and Group 1 Prix Rothschild in 2021, gets her four-year-old season underway in the Group 3 Lodge Park Stud Irish EBF Park Express Stakes and can bridge a 17-year gap between wins in this race for Aidan O’Brien.
With 27 runners, the Paddy Power Irish Lincoln is as competitive as ever, but it is worth taking a chance on Ransom.
Formerly with Michael Stoute, he made his debut for Denis Hogan in an all-weather handicap late last month and caught the eye finishing sixth of 11 behind Punk Poet. After missing the kick, the lightly raced five-year-old was a little keen, didn’t enjoy the best of luck in running, and yet was beaten just three lengths.
It is easy to form the opinion that he could take a considerable step forward for that effort and while he will need luck in running from his high draw, he makes each-way appeal at a big price. San Martino, who was bought out of Ballydoyle for €21,000, makes his debut for Ger Lyons and certainly merits a market check. He has dropped a few pounds from his peak mark and must be respected.
On Sunday’s National Hunt card in Limerick, Minx Tiara can make a winning return to chasing in the Tote Always SP Or Better Handicap Chase. David O’Brien’s mare finished a well-beaten third on her most recent outing, in a handicap hurdle, but she contested two chases around this time last year and was successful in the first, and a fine second to Scarlet And Dove in the second. Both of those lines of form suggest she is very well treated off her mark of 125, and the ground is the only concern. In testing conditions, she would be almost unopposable but, on the likely quicker ground, she has the class to get through.
One of the most interesting runners of the weekend is Tuesday, who contests the Irish Stallion Farms EBF Fillies’ Maiden, the penultimate race on Sunday’s Flat card in Naas. While she was touched off on her only start of last season, she is as short as 8-1 for the Newmarket 1000 Guineas, for which she has been supported in the past 24 hours.
A full sister to the brilliant Minding, the form of her debut defeat reads particularly well as she was beaten a short head behind subsequent Group 1 Moyglare Stakes winner Discoveries, the pair nicely clear of the now 94-rated Mise Le Meas. She will likely be a short price to go one place better this time, but anything less than a comfortable victory will be disappointing.
1:25 Midnight Toker
1:56 Laugh A Minute
2:31 Toy (Nap)
3:06 Boundless Ocean
3:41 Mother Earth
4:16 Ransom (NB)
4:51 Montepulciano
5:21 Red Wasp
1:25 Finsceal Go Deo
1:56 Swift Flight
2:31 Perfect Thunder
3:06 Karakoul
3:41 Emphatic Answer
4:16 San Martino
4:51 Jaafel
5:21 Clara’s Approach
1:30 Witch Of The Wood
2:05 Half Nutz
2:40 B United
3:15 Daylight Come
3:50 West Coast (NB)
4:25 Licence
5:00 Tuesday
5:30 French Claim
1:30 Rosslare Strand
2:05 Breaking Story
2:40 Gallow Hill
3:15 Cosmic Vega
3:50 Markaz Paname
4:25 Layfayette
5:00 Ezine
5:30 Tosen Lydia
1:15 The Road To Fame
1:45 Pats Choice
2:16 Santa Rossa
2:51 Magnor Glory
3:26 Egality Mans
4:01 Minx Tiara (Nap)
4:35 Ricky Langford
5:10 Mercurey
1:15 We Had It All Said
1:45 Midnight It Is
2:16 Gjoumi
2:51 Na Caith Tobac
3:26 Torygraph
4:01 Dinny Lacey
4:35 Nelly’s Money
5:10 Impulsive Dancer
