Valuable sales race at Fairyhouse

Easily the most valuable race of the day is the sales race for 2yo´s over 7 furlongs at 18.05 CET at Fairyhouse. The Irish track is better known for its jumps fixtures and this is its best flat race of the year. David Wachman, who sent out the winner of yesterday´ s big race in Ireland, now saddles two runners: Three Sea Captains (Wayne Lordan) and the filly Royal Empress (Willie Lee). They met a month asho at the Curragh, when the former won and the latter was only fourth, but that was over 5 furlongs and over this trip the placings could well be reversed. Thunder Mountain (Dermot Weld/ Pat Smullen) has some useful form, stays well and is our selection, although British raider Tipping Over (Hugo Palmer/ Chris Hayes), third in the Kronimus-Rennen at Baden-Baden, also has a squeak.

There is also jumping in Ireland at Ballinrobe, where the most interesting event is the beginners chase at 18.45. Several promising types are entered here, including Mickelson (Noel Meade/ Paul Carberry), who had already shown ability over fences, However both Plan A (Gordon Elliott/ Mark Walsh) and the 4yo Argocat (Tom Taaffe/ Andrew McNamara) were better hurdlers and make their chasing debut here. Plan A was 4th in the Galway Hurdle, which is good form, but we prefer Argocat, who was also decent on the flat and as the only 4yo in the field, gets lots of weight.

There has been a lot of rain at Leicester and the going has changed, resulting in several non-runners. 5 of the runners in the 5 furlongs handicap at 17.00 have altready been taken out, but it is still a tricky race. With Kevin Ryan´s string in good form, we like Lexi´s Hero (Jamie Spencer), even though his form this season has been poor; however he has come down a lot in the weights and would be a good thing on his old form.

The best race at Kempton is the 3yo handicap over 1 1/2 miles at 17.50. The Queen´s Galleon (Sir Michael Stoute/ Richard Hughes) has top-weight here, but we are a bit worried about the stable form. The very lightly-raced Dedication (Roger Charlton/ James Doyle) and Tiger Cliff (Sir Henry Cecil/ Tom Queally) both won maiden races over 11 furlongs on this course last time out, and must be considered, but we will take an each-way chance on Nordic Quest (Ger Butler/ Neil Callan). He is out of the German mare Nordtänzerin and already has decent handicap form to his credit.