Saturday Tips - May 7th 2011 - Punchestown and Ascot

Saturday, in the midst of the biggest and most illustrious jumps meeting in Ireland with Punchestown drawing to an end, there is excellent and competitive flat racing, with the highlight being the Totesport Victoria Cup, won last year by the Irish raider Dandy Boy for trainer David Marnane. The supporting card comes with a class 1 and class 2 listed races, with the Sir Michael Stoute trained Verdant looking to put aside his poor seasonal reappearance by getting back on track in the John Doyle Buckhound stakes.

VERDANT was touted as a possible Derby horse when winning a maiden over 10 furlongs as a two year old, before winning a tough handicap on his first run as a three year old. He lost his way slightly in the middle of the season before two back to back handicap wins. He was a five length fifth of seven runners three weeks ago, tiring in the last two furlongs and that should have put him spot on for this race. The obvious danger comes from the Roger Varian trained Alainmar, who last year was successful in a class two handicap and class two condition stakes, and has his ideal ground.

The Totesport Victoria Cup is a race that is attractive to owners, and punters, with 29 runners competing for a first prize of £52,964. The tough handicap has many questions, with few answers, and horses could be using this to get them spot on for future races in the coming season. Himalya, ridden by Ryan Moore could prove a big threat, although his fitness may still not be all there, and he could be using this as a stepping stone for other things. Trainers Richard Fahey and Dandy Nicholls are always dangerous in big handicaps, and usually have several runners each. On this occasion however, preference lay in the Michael Bell trained HORSERADISH, who was mightily impressive on returning to win a 6f handicap at Doncaster. The gelding progressed nicely last year; progressing to win a class two handicap over seven furlongs and jockey Hayley Turner has built a great relationship with the horse. He is clearly one on the upgrade, and one to keep an eye on for the rest of the season.

GRANDOUET is a horse that I have followed all season, and I will remain faithful to the Nicky Henderson gelding when he runs in the 4 year old hurdle at Punchestown. He has been progressive on all starts this season, to eventually finishing third in the Triumph Hurdle at Cheltenham. He followed that up by a fantastic run in the four year old juvenile hurdle at Aintree, when seemingly all over eventual winner Zarkander, unfortunate to being brought down at the second last by a. The only negative is he will face field where runners have beaten him before. Kumbeshwar was second ahead of him at Aintree and Unaccompanied was second at Cheltenham, That being said, he is improving with every run, and is the top rated horse in the race, and I still expect the Nicky Henderson and Barry Geraghty combination to end the festival on a high here.

Selections:

Horseradish 3.25 Ascot (EW) NAP

Verdant 2.20 Ascot

Grandouet 4.25 Punchestown

The Yorkshireman – Jack Milner