GAVIN CROMWELL: Ahead of a busy weekend in the racing calendar, Gavin previews his five runners at the Dublin Racing Festival.
It’s obviously a fantastic weekend of racing in Ireland with the Dublin Racing Festival at Leopardstown and it’s great to see that almost all of the big guns have stood their ground. It promises to be a real treat and we’re very lucky to be involved with a number of runners, including two in the Grade 1s.
Leopardstown Saturday
We’re really looking forward to running Darver Star in the Irish Champion Hurdle (3.10pm).
It’s clearly a very strong renewal with the likes of Honeysuckle, Sharjah and Klassical Dream all declared, but he’s more than worth his place in the line-up based on what he’s done this season. He’s quite a tricky horse to play being a summer novice which is why this is his first run outside of novice company.
He didn’t finish far behind Envoi Allen and Abacadabras last time, though this is a real acid test against the big guns and he’ll need a career best to feature. He’ll probably need a couple to underperform as well, but if he can pick up some prize money we’ll be chuffed to bits.
Cheltenham is very much on the agenda, however we’ll know much more about where we’ll be targeting after Saturday.
Lever Du Soleil goes in the big handicap hurdle (3.45pm). He’s entitled to take his chance but looks up against it in this company. He prefers going the other way around and we’re not entirely sure he’s that well-handicapped of 128.
Leopardstown Sunday
We run two in the mares handicap hurdle (12.55pm). Jeremys Flame has had a pretty busy time of it this season, but ran an absolute cracker in the Grade 1 Tolworth at Sandown last time.
Her second to Fiddlerontheroof looks very solid form and she looks well treated off a mark of 136 on the back of that. We’re hoping she can go really well here before she heads to Cheltenham for the mares’ novice.
We’re quietly hoping she might be a Graded horse in a handicap and there looks to be plenty of pace in the race which should suit her too. If she can run up to form again, she should be bang there.
Duchess Ravenwaves also runs in the same race with Conor McNamara taking off a valuable 5lbs. She might have bumped into a good one the last day at Limerick, but she’ll have to improve a bit to feature. We do think she’s more than deserving of her place in the line-up, though.
It’s great to have another runner in a Grade 1 in the shape of Wolf Prince in the Spring Juvenile Hurdle (1.25pm).
Aspire Tower is clearly the one to beat and if he turns up in the sort of form has he has previously our lad is going to be up against it. However, you can’t be afraid of one horse and he was a good second to that rival at Christmas in a Grade 2 so has shown he has plenty of ability. Hopefully he can pick up some valuable prize money.
He’ll more than likely to head to the Fred Winter at Cheltenham, unless he wins this and then it will be the Triumph.
Our final runner over the weekend is Peaches And Cream in the handicap hurdle (2.30pm).
He won here at Christmas in a novice handicap but he looks up against it now. The trip will suit and having course form is another positive, though he doesn’t look feasibly handicapped in a race as competitive as this.
Did you know that as well as checking the realtime prices on BETDAQ below – you can also log into your account and place your bets directly into BETDAQ from BETDAQ TIPS.
