Ireland today

At least there is flat racing at Fairyhouse in Ireland, although well below the usual Sunday standard. Main event is the listed event over 6 furlongs at 16.05 CET. This looks quite tricky, and the field includes the winner Croisultan (Liam McAteer/ Niall McCullagh), runner-up Rock Jock (Tracy Collins/ Pat Shanahan) and fifth Santo Padre (David Marnane/ Colm O´Donoghue) from the 2010 running.

Of these the last-named has easily the best recent form. The first two seem to have lost form and the same goes for Duff (Eddie Lynam/ Kevin Manning), who has not won for almost two years. With doubts about the older horses, this could go to a 3yo, and the filly Rose Bonheur (Kevin Prenderfast/ Declan McDonough) certainly fits the bill, having won 3 times already this year. She was third to the smart Emulous over 7 furlongs here last time, form which gives her an obvious chance. Moonlit Garden (Dermot Weld/ Pat Smullen) was miles behind her at Naas, but showed better form next time and could be the danger.

There are some decent performers entered in the 10 furlongs conditions race an hour later, but here again we think that the 3yo´s can come out on top, and expect Sharestan (John Oxx/ McCullagh) and Freedom (Aidan and Joseph O´Brien) to fight out the finish.

There is also Irish N.H. racing at Sligo, with the usual large fields. The main event, a novice hurdle at 16.15, has however only 7 runners. Princeton Plans (Eddie Harty/ Niall Madden) and Tavern Times (Tom Mullins/ Davy Russell) have already shown a decent level of form, but they have to concede a lot of weight to the 4yo debutant Sulwaan (Dermot Weld/ Ruby Walsh) and he could score over hurdles at the first time of asking.