Thursday is a great day of racing with the best action coming on our sponsored card at Thurles. You will also find fixtures at Musselburgh, Lingfield and Taunton.
NAP Of The Day
On Thursday at Thurles we sponsor a couple of races on the card, one being the Beginners Chase which is run as the first race on the card over two miles two furlongs. This looks a deep enough race with Aspire Tower representing Henry De Bromhead, Deployed in the Gigginstown House Stud silks for Gordon Elliott and a few other nice types to cast your eye over.
The likely favourite and my nap today is going to be Il Etait Temps. This will be his first run over fences, but Willie Mullins French star ran some serious races over hurdles last season. His most notable effort was the win at the Dublin Racing Festival, beating some quality opposition. Fifth in the Supreme at the Cheltenham Festival, he returned to home soil and rounded off the season with a second to Facile Vega.
It is interesting he goes chasing when from memory in the flesh he isn’t the biggest, but I did think the one improvement to come from him could be that he gives fences more respect than he showed hurdles at time. The ground will be perfect for him, and I am expecting a solid start to his life as a chaser here at Thurles.
The Must Watch Race Of The Day
The other race we sponsor on the card is the 12.40 Make Your Best Bet At BetVictor Chase, this looks a cracker with some seriously quality horses set to line up. Janidil is the top rated but owing to the penalty structure of the race has to carry 11-10 here. Haunt En Couleurs, James Du Berlais, Classic Getaway and Capodanno all join him from the same stable giving Willie Mullins a very strong hand.
French Dynamite, second in the Paddy Power Gold Cup last year, looks set to make his seasonal reappearance for Mouse Morris whilst Farouk D’alene for Gordon Elliott aims to give him a third win in the race in the last six years.
When you look at the previous roll of honour several top-class horses have claimed this race. Noble Prince, Sir Des Champs, Champagne Fever and Footpad are the four that stand out to me. The betting is fairly open with Haut En Couleurs, your market leader at the time of writing, fourth at Aintree in the Topham under a big weight. French Dynamite next in, will love the better ground that Thurles tends to provide, then we can split the JP McManus runners Capodanno and the tongue tied Janidil.
One thing’s for sure, we are in for a great race and I can’t wait to see who comes out on top.
