Saturday was a good day for my picks at Leopardstown. Mother Earth was 3rd,the 6/5 favourite was 4th when she found herself short of room 2 out. She disputed the lead in 2nd under a furlong from the finish but dropped to 3rd inside the closing stages. Upfront No Speak Alexander won by a neck. In the other big race Tarnawa was 2nd,the 9/4 chance was 3rd a furlong out. She challenged moving into 2nd inside the final furlong keeping on well close to home with the 5/6 favourite St Mark's Basilica winning by 3/4 of a length.
Irish Champions Weekend moves to The Curragh on Sunday with 4 more Group one’s, the first comes at 2.55 when 13 begin the Flying Five Stakes. British raiders have won 8 of the last 13 runnings of this race and they look as though they hold the cards here. Glass Slippers returns to defend her crown and she should be sharper after her comeback when she was third in the King George at Goodwood but the pick here is Winter Power who was brilliant when winning the Nunthorpe at York last month and she should become the third filly to win this race. At 3.30 8 start the Moyglare Stud Stakes. This is always a race to look at closely with the likes of Sky Lantern and Love winning in recent years on there way to classic wins. This year should be an O’Brien family battle,Aiden looks for his 10th win and of his runners Prettiest looks like his best hope but she needs to bounce back after failing to push on after going well behind Sandrine at Royal Ascot. This looks like a Joseph win with his horse Agartha who made all the running when winning the Debutante Stakes over this course and distance last time and she should be the 7th successive Debutante winner to go on and win at a higher level. 4.05 sees 7 line-up for the Vincent O’Brien National Stakes. Here it's difficult to look past Point Lonsdale who made it 4 wins from 4 runs when he brushed aside Maritime Wings to win the Futurity Stakes by 4 1/4 lengths last time out and he shouldn’t be upstaged giving Aiden O’Brien his first win in this race since 2016. The final Group one of the weekend is at 4.40 when 14 go to post for the Irish St Leger. This race has been top of Search For A Song's list since she won it for a second time 12 months ago,she will be difficult to beat here if at her best. The standout horse in the field is Twilight Payment who was 3rd in this race last year but went on to win the Melbourne Cup and looked on good form when picking up a 6th course win here last time and he should make it a magnificent seven. Others in the field to look at are Baron Semedi and the Ebor winner Sonnyboyliston but they will need to pull out there best to spring a surprise. This is a day to sit back in front of your TV and watch the racing with hopefully some close finishes.
Big race predictions: 2.55: 13: Winter Power 3.30: 1: Agartha
4.05: 6: Point Lonsdale 4.40: 8: Twilight Payment.
No comments:
Post a Comment