St. Patrick´s Day

It´s St. Patrick´s Day today, an Irish holiday, amd although the big parades were held last Sunday, today is really the day for the celebration of Ireland´s national saint, and we have racing at two tracks as a result. At Downpatrick the best race is the Daily Mirror Chase over 3 1/4 miles at 17.45 CET but this has only 3 runners, so is not n attractive betting medium. Roi du Mee (Gordon Elliott/ Bryan Cooper) is a tough and classy stayer who will probablky make the running. He will be tough to pass, but he has to give 10 lbs to two smart opponents: Foildubh (JP Ryan/ Paul Carberry), only narrowly behind him last time and now better off at the weights, and Yes Tom (Stuart Crawford/ Barry Geraghty) who won this race last year- when the opponents were arguably weaker.

Willie Mullins had a sensational meeting at Cheltenham last week, but he has only one runner today, Listen Dear, with son Paddy up, in the mares bumper at 18.30 at Wexford. But Ruby Walsh has 3 rtides for other trainers, all of them with chances: I Shot the Sheriff for Tony Martin at 16.50, Davinia´s Tip for Adrian Maguire at 17.25 and Cootamundra for JA Berry at 18.00.

The two U.K. jumps meetings (as well as the all-weather racing at Southwell) are of less interest, but we like Jay Are (Gary and Josh Moore) at 16.20 at Exeter and Rock a Doodle Do (Sally Hall/ Adam Nicol) at 17.40 at Wetherby.