Ireland: Clonmel off, Punchestown on

Today´s Irish N.H. meeting at Clonmel has been abandoned, but the much higher profile meeting at Punchestown goes ahead, although the going will be extremely testing. There are only 5 runners in the main event, the Grade One John Durkan Memorial chase over 2 1/2 miles at 15.05 CET, but they are all pretty smart. Aran Concerto (Noel Meade/ Barry Geraghty) has not run since narrowly defeating Barker (Willie Mullins/ Ruby Walsh) over this CD in April, and the latter followed up with an easy success from the smart Forpadytheplasterer. Mullins also saddles J´ y Vole (Paul Townend), who last ran in Auteuil, but Ruby presumably rides the stable´s first choice. Joncol (Paul Nolan/ Aidan Cawley) is also a major prospect, but the most interesting runner is In Compliance (Dessie Hughes/ Paddy Flood), who won this back in 2006 and after a long lay-off with injury made a good recent winning comeback at Thurles. There is also a small field for the main supporting feature, a listed novice h urdle at 14.05, where Jessica Harrington fields two of the 4 runners, both last-time-out winners, while Call the Police is still undefeated under rules. However our choice is Noel Meade´s Asigh Pearl (Davy Condon), who as the only mare gets a useful 5 lbs allowance and never seems to run a bad race.

Betting forecast:
1. Race: Hugo De Vindecy - Start Me Up - Green Mining
2. Race: Asigh Pearl - Saludos - Coole River
3. Race: Colbert Station - Sinatra Bar - Le Marquis
4. Race: Joncol - Barker - Aran Concerto
5. Race: Lenabane - Sam Adams - Beckett Rock
6. Race: Bringbackthebiff - Financial Reward - Southern Vic
7. Race: Our Girl Salley - Lean Times - Rough Times