Ireland today

There is flat racing today in Ireland - the abandoned final meeting from last Saturday at Leopardstown- and N.H. racing at Thurles, both with listed races. Main event at Thurles is the Thurles Chase over 2 3/4 miles at 15.25 CET, in which the smart In Compliance, now trained by Dessie Hughes and ridden by Paddy Flood, makes his comeback after almost 2 years off the track. If anywhere near his best, he should win this, but top-weight Chelsea Harbour (Tom and Emmett Mullins), a consistent performer at this level, is an obvious danger. The beginners chase over 2 miles at 16.00 here is also interesting: Essex (Mike O´Brien/ Andrew Lynch), Whatuthink (Oliver McKiernan/ Barry Geraghty) and Zaarito (Colm Murphy/ Matt O´Connor) are all expected to make the grade over fences, but our selection is Jessica Harrington´s Give it Time (Adrian Leigh), who fell at the last last time out when going like a winner.At Leopardstown, the 7 furlongs race at 14.40 should go to the Aga Khan´s Rayeni (John Oxx/ Mick Kinane), the clear form choice based on his second place in the Irish 2000 and recent listed win. The 2yo race over 9 furlongs at 15.15 looks more tricky. Jim Bolger´s Marfach (Kevin Manning) was only beaten a short head in the Goffs Million, but Aidan O´Brien´s two runners Mikhail Glinka (Seamus Heffenan) and Banyan Tree (Colm O´Donoghue) could be troublesome. The November Hndicap over 2 miles at 15.50 is the big betting race here, and several of the 21 runners have been running over jumps; the two promising claimers GF and TC Carroll are on Willie Mullins´ Dani California and Noel Meade´s Donnas Palm respectively and we expect these two to be involved in the finish.