The Irish horse racing broadcaster offers his selections for Curragh on Saturday.
The Keeneland Phoenix Stakes tops the bill at the Curragh on Saturday but in truth it’s a race I am quite happy to watch rather than get involved in. Whistlejacket heads the market after rebounding from his costly Royal Ascot defeat with a Group 2 victory at Newmarket but the fact that Aidan O’Brien and the Coolmore partners are throwing Monday’s Naas winner Heavens Gate back into the fray so quickly suggests there may not exactly be huge confidence behind the colt.
Ger Lyons’ unbeaten Babouche is another smart filly and would probably just about be my pick at the prices after her gritty success over today’s course and distance in the Anglesey Stakes.
Elsewhere on the card I’m going to persevere with TORIVEGA as he has his sights raised to Group 3 company by trainer Sheila Lavery in the Phoenix Sprint Stakes at 3.25. This four year-old is a much more talented horse than his record of one win from ten starts implies, and apart from a disappointing effort in the Wokingham Stakes in June he has done little wrong this term. He was once again left with too much to do after meeting interference when a never-nearer fourth in a premier handicap here on Irish Oaks weekend and if given a less complicated ride this time is well capable of getting involved.
KEKE is another sprinter going places, albeit at a slightly lower level, and the four year-old is fancied to complete a hat-trick in the 6f handicap at 5.10. Eddie Lynam has brought this Dandy Man gelding along steadily, and following an unlucky defeat at Naas in May he has got onto a roll with back-to-back successes at Navan and Down Royal. He did particularly well to get out of a hole on the latter occasion at a track that would have been far from ideal for his run style, and with James Ryan’s claim cancelling out a 5lb hike can continue his rise through the ranks.
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