Good novices at Naas

As so often, the best racing on a Sunday comes from Ireland and Naas stages two good races for novices just below Cheltenham standard. The Grade Three chase at 16.30 CET should go to Bright New Dawn (Dessie Hughes/ Bryan Cooper), who was a Grade Two winner over hurdles and has started well over fences; he has to concede weight all round but should be up to the task. The listed hurdle race at 16.00 looks very competive.

Quickpick Vic (Tony Martin/ Paul Carberry) sets the standrad here, having run well ahgainst Cheltemnham candidates last time, but he is no certtainty with Carrriganog (Aidan O´Brien/ Robbie Power) and Champagne James (Ted Walsh/ Danny Mullins) both looking very dangerous. Big betting race here is the Leinster National at 18.00. Dessie Hughes can complete a nice double by winning this with top-weight Raz de Maree (Barry Geraghty), the only runner who also has an Aintree entry. He has already won the Cork and Munster equivalents, and although his latest runs were poor, a return to his best form would suffice here.

In England, the ground is rapidly drying out so that recent form on heavy should be treated with caution. At Warwick, Sweet Boy Vic (Chris Gordon/ Tom Cannon) has gone up in the weights for finishing runner-up 3 times running on heavy ground; he can still run well in the opening handicap hurdle at 15.20, but we shall take a chance on top-weight Wily Fox (James Eustace/ Jack Quinlan). A chase for stayers at 17.20 is the main event here, and the field includes 2012 and 2013 winners Trigger the Light (Alan King/ Wayne Hutchinson) and Bally Sands (Robin Mathew/ Robbie Dunne). Bally Sands also finished runner-up over this CD last time to Loughalder (M Sheppard/ Charlie Poste), with Union Jack d´Ycy (Venetia Williams/ Aidan Coleman) third and Trigger the Light pulled up. At today´s weights we expect Bally Sands to win the race for the second time.

Trainer Charlie Longsdon and his stable jockey Noel Fehily have a good record at Market Rasen and look set flor a good day there. Kilcooley, who looked almost Cheltenham class when winning easily over this CD on this only hurdles start, can start the ball rolling at 15.10.