GAVIN CROMWELL: Brand Ambassador and dual-trainer Gavin Cromwell previews a whole host of runners he has this week, including stable star Princess Yaiza at Cork on Sunday.
It was great to notch up a couple of winners over the jumps at Kilbeggan on Monday. It’s always nice to get on the board early in the season and it’s good to see that plenty of ours are running well. We enjoy the summer jumpers and hopefully we’ll have a few more go in over the next few weeks.
It’s a busy few days for the yard with runners across both codes and here are my thoughts on all of them.
Tipperary Wednesday
We kick things off with Ruinous in the maiden hurdle (1.00pm). He’s ready to start back having run a nice race at Thurles on his most recent start in March. He wouldn’t go there without a chance, but I expect he’ll come on for the run and there might be a couple in here who are a bit too good.
Captain Courageous, Midnight Wilde and Bread And Butter all run in the handicap hurdle (2.00pm).
Jonathan [Moore] has chosen to ride Captain Courageous who has been off the track for a long time, but as we saw with Moonball on Monday that’s not necessarily a negative. He’s been going nicely at home and we’re looking forward to running him.
Bread And Butter was second in a competitive handicap two starts ago at Gowran Park and you’d definitely have to respect his chance on the back of that. Conor McNamara takes five pounds off which makes his life easier and he should run another solid race.
Midnight Wilde makes his first start in a handicap. We’re not quite sure where a mark of 98 leaves him but this outing should give us a much better idea where we are with him.
Jaunty Velocity goes in the handicap hurdle (3.00pm). She found 2m4f on the short side at the same track last week, so we’re stepping her up to three miles here. She looks up against it though.
Peaches And Cream makes his first start over fences in the beginners chase (3.30pm). He’s jumped pretty well on the whole at home and he’s ready to get going over fences. He won a hot handicap hurdle at Leopardstown over Christmas, but we feel he’s probably handicapped to his limit over hurdles so we thought it was right to switch him to the bigger obstacles. It looks a pretty handy beginners chase on paper, so we’re just hoping he runs a nice race first time out.
Next up is Nomanbehind who makes his first start for us in the handicap chase (4.00pm). We don’t know too much about him, but he’s done things nicely at home since we’ve had him. We considered starting him over hurdles, but thought fences would be more suitable and this looks a nice starting point.
Leopardstown Wednesday
Bigga Da Betta is our sole runner at Leopardstown in the fillies’ maiden (7.00pm). She’s a nice type but this looks a pretty hot maiden with some potentially smart types declared. It’s a massive ask to run up to that sort of level on debut so we’re just hoping she puts her best foot forward.
Bellestown Thursday
We’re going to give April’s Joy another run in the 1m6f handicap (2.00pm) just a couple of days after her win at Kilbeggan on Monday. She’s come out of that well and given she’s rated 50 on the Flat we thought we’d take our chance here. We won’t do anything with her between the two races, so we’ll just see how she goes and with any luck she’ll put in another strong showing.
Bajan Excell also runs in the race and he looks well-treated here given his hurdle mark. Shane Crosse takes the ride and he won on him at Limerick, so we’re hoping lightning might strike twice!
Aasleagh Fawn runs in the second division (2.30pm). It looks a bit of a weaker race and she should go there with a big chance. She was collared in the dying strides at Navan the last day and she’s been in really good order since then. We’d like to think she goes there as the one to beat and we’re hoping for a big run. She’d be one of our better chances over the next few days.
We run Tritonix in the 2m1f handicap (4.30pm). She could have run in a couple of long-distance handicaps at the Curragh, but we swerved those in favour of coming here as she’s won at the course before. She’s in good form and should be there or thereabouts.
Sligo Thursday
We’ve got two running at Sligo on Thursday in the shape of Almost A Dream and Differentiate in the 1m4f handicap (6.10pm). Both are probably up against it and we’re just hoping this big step up in trip brings about some improvement.
Cork Sunday
We’re looking forward to running Princess Yaiza in the Group 3 Munster Oaks (5.15pm).
She’s in good form and has come on plenty from her run in the Noblesse Stakes at Leopardstown. We were happy with the way the way she ran there and although we were a tad disappointed not to pick up some black type, she wasn’t beaten far. We’ve been happy with her since then and this race has always been the target, so we’re excited to get her out again.
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