MAKE A MARK BEHIND LYONS
THE Ger Lyons-trained Inscribe will be sent off favourite for today’s €120,000 Colm Quinn BMW Mile in Galway and looks the horse to beat in an ultra competitive renewal of today’s traditional feature.
A four-year-old son of Harlan’s Holiday, Inscribe raced twice for Sir Michael Stoute before being bought for just £14,000 and joining Lyons, who will also saddle veteran Brendan Brackan, winner of this race in 2013, for Inscribe’s owner David Spratt.
The selection has won three of his four starts for Lyons since being gelded, after receiving his handicap mark, and scored at Gowran Park and Naas last autumn, off marks of 69 and 78 respectively. Beaten on his seasonal bow in Navan, Inscribe impressed when beating Rickrack in a 10-furlong Curragh handicap in May, when rated just 82.
Now 9lb higher, he still strikes me as stakes-level performer masquerading in handicap, and off a mark of 91.
His wins have been achieved in soft or heavy ground, so he’ll have no problem with current conditions.
And, with luck in running, in a tight, 18-runner he should take beating.
The field includes two previous winners, the Lyons-trained Brendan Brackan, 3lb higher than when landing the spoils five years ago, and last year’s victor Riven Light, now 16lb higher and without a run since Listowel in September. And the top-weight is drawn 18, almost on the Dublin road.
Third in last year’s race and a dual-winner of Sunday’s Ahonoora Handicap, Dream Walker is another that will relish the soft underfoot conditions and has excellent prospects in his third run since joining Jarlath Fahey.
He’ll be ridden by Chris Hayes, unbeaten on the grey around Ballybrit.
Dream Walker’s former stable-companion Baraweez, trained by Brian Ellison, is another Galway regular worthy of consideration – he has won twice from eight runs around Ballybrit.
Another veteran, Aussie Valentine, revitalised since joining Ado Mcguinness always runs his race, although held on recent
Killarney form by Michael O’callaghan’s progressive three-year-old filly Rionach.
She scooted home at Killarney, when building on her
Tipperary maiden win, and, although facing a tough enough task off 92 on her handicap debut, should not be underestimated.
Others to handicap, plenty of note include the O’brien runners, Aidan’s consistent three-year-old Bond Street, and Joseph’s Band Of Outlaws, up 5lb for a recent success in a competitive Curragh handicap, and Michael Halford’s Curragh winner Saltonstall, which must bounce back from his Royal Ascot trip.
Willie Mullins and Ruby Walsh might get punters off to a profitable start with the unbeaten Exchange Rate in the Colm Quinn BMW Novice Hurdle, a listed event over an extended two miles.
Winner of a Downpatrick bumper on his debut, Exchange Rate (below) won the mile-and-ahalf amateur riders’ maiden here last year and wasn’t seen again until making a successful start over hurdles at Wexford last month, when comfortably accounting for One In All In, which is in the field again today.
A 139-rated hurdler, Chateau Conti sets the standard, on his fencing bow, in the Latin Quarter Beginners Chase. Formerly with Willie Mullins, this six-year-old was beaten a length in third spot behind The Game Changer on his first start for Joseph O’brien in a conditions hurdle at Down Royal last month and, sure to be well-schooled, is preferred to the Emmet Mullins-trained St Stephen’s Green.