OUTSIDERS-KING SHAMROCK HAS FOUR IN THE FRAME: After winners at 10-1 and 20-1, Shamrock’s Outsider bet had Hunting Tower (3rd 10-1) on Sunday, then King High (2nd 12-1) yesterday for a fourth consecutive return. His nap was Tom Horn (WON 4-5).
TWO MORE TODAY: There are two more outsiders at Roscommon today with reasons for backing one of them so stacked up as to suggest really big value on Betdaq.
My finest hour with an outsider was ante-post on Sublimity’s Champion Hurdle. It was also John Carr’s finest hour and, while his Young Lochinvar is no Sublimity, the gelding has five things going for him at a big price at Roscommon today (7.30).
Carr has recently had a winner and Young Lochinvar won the race two years ago off a 4lb higher mark; his Roscommon form is 310; and he’s reunited with Colm O’Donoghue, whose form figures aboard the seven-year-old are 31010.
Key to his chances, and a fifth reason to back him, is his low draw: high numbers don’t win many races at Roscommon, as you can see from the 2010 results, when stalls 3, 4, 9, 4, 1, 13, 2 held the winners.
Stalls 3 and 4 have won the two runnings of this 7f handicap, yet the paper favourites this morning are drawn 15 and 13. The stables in 3 and 4 today are both badly out of form but they’re forgetting Young Lochinvar.
Another with an each-way chance, and at double-figure odds as I write, is OK Annie (6.30), off the same mark as last year’s winner but claimed off to give her an absolute featherweight from stall 6.
Not much in the race appeals and again double-figure-drawn horses will be up against it. That also applies to the 7.00 but I’m skipping to the Listed, where I must surely nap Haziyna.
John Oxx has won the last three runnings of this race, in which three-year-olds hold sway, and his Haziyna has already finished in front of Banksters Bonus, Priomhbhean and Rising Wind.
Another trainer in form is Ger Lyons but he hasn’t had a winner at Roscommon in nearly five years of trying and so I’m opposing Lightening Pearl (6.00) in the opener, with her less than ideal draw.
I had heard good things about the Oasis colt Among Equals and he was favourite for Ballydoyle in a Cork maiden, when maybe the soft ground was against him. I’ll give him another chance.
SHAMROCK’S BETS:
NAP: Haziyna (8.00 Roscommon)
NEXT BEST: Mundher (9.00 Roscommon)
OUTSIDERS: OK Annie (6.30 Roscommon), Young Lochinvar (7.30 Roscommon).
DAQ TRIO: Among Equals (6.00 Roscommon), Haziyna (8.00 Roscommon) and Mundher (9.00 Roscommon)
