Redemption Day likely to make winning start to life over hurdles

Better Days Ahead can land the feature race at Leopardstown, the Grade One Racing Post Long Distance Novice Chase

SMART OPERATOR: Redemption Day is all class and if he is in the same form as when last seen at Punchestown in May, it will take a big
performance to lower his colours on his belated first start over obstacles. Picture: Ryan Byrne/Inpho

St Stephen’s Day racing in Ireland is more about quantity than quality, but there are some class acts sprinkled around the cards, and one of those, Redemption Day, gets the nap to make a belated winning debut over hurdles in the Thorntons Recycling Maiden Hurdle, the second race on the opening day at Leopardstown.

Since making a winning racing debut in a bumper at this meeting in 2021, Willie Mullins’ seven-year-old has run six more times, all in bumpers. He has won three of them, including the most recent of them in the Grade One Champion Bumper at the Punchestown festival, a race in which he finished runner-up to Facile Vega two years previously.