THE NUMBER 1 SEED! SHAMROCK SERVES UP 8-1 NAP: Shamrock yesterday made it five winning naps out of six, five in a row for Irish racing, with Gossamer Seed (WON 8-1) at Sligo. Only when there was no racing in Ireland did his nap go down. Here’s the Irish sequence:
* Thursday: ADIYNARA, WON 5-1
* Friday: SPORTSMASTER, WON 4-1
* Saturday: MISTY FOR ME, WON 100-30
* Sunday: INVINCIBLE ASH, WON 9-2
* Tuesday: GOSSAMER SEED, WON 8-1
20-1 DOUBLE CLOSE TO HIS HEART: He completed yet another double at 20-1 through Gra Geal Mo Chroi (love of my heart) which WON 11-8. Doubles are certainly close to his heart: that made 17 in 15 days. Not to mention four trebles and 100-1 accumulator.
SHAMROCK’S NAP AS FORM FIGURES: Here’s how the results of Shamrock naps look when listed as form figures: 111012310111141
It’s another English nap today but this time in Ireland. And it has an Irishman in the saddle. The trainer, Ed Dunlop, is as English as straw hats and striped ties but he knows how to train a top-class racehorse.
Whatever happens further down the pecking order, when Dunlop junior gets a really top-class animal he places it with distinction, witness the raid on Saturday when his Red Cadeaux won the Curragh Cup by nine lengths.
Sharnberry, with Kieren Fallon up, must surely go very close in the Brownstown at Fairyhouse today, after her second in the Fred Darling to Cheveley Park runner-up Rimth and then overtaking that one when Rimth was down the field and Sharnberry was fifth in the French 1,000 Guineas.
The winner has since run third in the French Oaks and the fourth, Nova Hawk – a neck in front of Dunlop’s Shamardal filly –was second in the Coronation Stakes at Ascot.
Our flag-bearer today is probably Emulous, still improving for her age, and with the Curragh scalp of Lolly For Dolly, subsequently surprise winner of the Windsor Castle Stakes.
But she has to give a stone away to Sharnberry at this stage of the season. The handicapper has shied away from rating the French form but, using collateral official ratings, Sharnberry should get a figure which puts her 5lb in hand of Dermot Weld’s filly at the weights.
The Racing Post figures say it’s more like a pound and that she’s level with History Note, another three-year-old getting the allowances, who was sixth in the Curragh Guineas, when Claiomh Solais was fourth. But that cannot be.
Second that day was Together, about 3lb in front of Claiomh Solais. But, in the Coronation Stakes, Together was more than a length behind Nova Hawk, the same filly I mentioned as very close to Sharnberry on French form.
By all accounts then, History Note, Claoimh Solais and Rose Bonheur (only 9th in the Irish Guineas) have some catching up to do with Sharnberry.
SHAMROCK’S BETS
NAP: Sharnberry (7.30 Fairyhouse)
NEXT BEST: Bible Black (6.00 Fairyhouse)
DAQ MULTIPLES: Bible Black (6.00 Fairyhouse), Sharnberry (7.30 Fairyhouse), Kastania (9.00 Fairyhouse)
