Cork (N.H.) and Southwell (a.w.)

The Irish jumps meeting at Cork today is an all-hurdles affair and starts off with a maiden hurdle for 6yo´s and up at 14.15 CET. German-bred Diophas (Edward O´Grady/ Andrew McNamara) is arguably the form choice here, but the really interesting one is Jessica Harrington´s Jumbajukiba (Robbie Power), who was group class on the flat and now makes his belated jumping debut. He acts well on heavy ground, so that should be no problem, but his best distance was 7 furlongs, so it remains to be seen if he can stay so much further over hurdles. There should be no such doubts with Morning Supreme (Willie Mullins/ Ruby Walsh), one of the best bumper horses last season, who made a successful hurdling debut last time and can follow up at 14.45.

The best race at Southwell is the 5 furlongs handicap at 14.10, with plenty of familiar faces, such as 12yo The Tatling (Milton Bradley/ Jack Dean), who won the race last year and can never be left out of calculations. Ann Stokell´s Pawan is another old CD specialist, but seems to be out of form. This is a very tricky race, but Barney Curley´s Elusive Hawk also comes into the reckoning, as all his 3 career wins have been here, although always over 6 furlongs. His jockey Tom Queally also has a chance of taking the 7 furlongs handicap at 16.10 on top-weight Conor Dore´s Kipchak, who won at Wolverhampton last week but also goes well here.