Fairyhouse Easter meeting starts today

The Fairyhouse Easter meeting, which starts today, is one of two big Irish N.H. meetings this month (Punchestown 3 weeks later is the other) which mark the climax of the Irish jumping season. Despite the proximity of Cheltenham and Aintree, the meeting has some very strong fields and the two Grade One races today, the mares novice hurdle over 2 1/2 miles at 15.25 CET and the novice chase over the same trip at 17.30, are both well up to standard even if they have only runners apiece.

The star of the show could be Annie Power (Willie Mullins/ Ruby Walsh) in the former event. Unbeaten in 6 starts, she is moving up in grade here but looks a mare of huge potential. She is by Shirocco out of a mare that ran in Germany and is another fine advertisement for German breeding. Mullins has 2 more runners here, although Zuzka (Katie Walsh) looks held by stable companion Grens melody (David Casey), but the main danger is probably Missunited (M Winters/ Barry Geraghty), a very versatile mare who has won 8 of her 15 starts and was also runner-up in the Irish Cesarewitch on the flat.

Mullins and Walsh have another good chance in the novice chase with Mikael d´Haguenet, and he could certainly win here, but he has been let down too often by his dodgy jumping to be a reliable betting proposition. Jessica Harrington has had a quiet season by her own high standards, but can take this with Oscars Well (Robbie Power), formerly a very smart hurdler who has not quite lived up to expectations over fences. However the trainer seems very confident, so we will give him a chance, although the other 4 runners all have smart form to their credit as well.

Should Annie Power win well, that woulod be an obvjuous pointer to the chances of Defy Logic (Paul Nolan/ Tony McCoy), runner-up to her at Naas last time, in the Gtrade Two novoce hurdle at 15.55. However this is another open race with several possibilities, includi8ng Prode of the Parosh (Mullins/ EWalsdh) and Sizing Gold (Hentry de BVromhead/ Andrew Lynch), neoither of whom has ever finished out of the first two, as well as extremely promising Bright New Dawn (Dessie Hughes/ Davy Russell). The question mark here is the very lightly-raced Some Tikket (Dermot Weld/ Barry Geraghty), who won his only race over hurdles, a Navan maiden at the beginning of the month, in most impressive style. This is a huge jump in class, but we are great fans of this trainer and believe that he is capable of pulling this off.

Betting forecast:
1. Race: Benemeade - Young Finnegan - Kingclip
2. Race: Zuzka - Missunited - Glens Melody
3. Race: Defy Logic - Bright New Dawn - Some Tikket
4. Race: The Paparrazi Kid - Balnaslow - Backinthere
5. Race: Raise Hell - Sammy Black - Speed Dial
6. Race: Mount Benbulben - Oscars Well - Mikael D`Haguenet
7. Race: Festive Felon - Carriganog - Sizing Silver