SILVER LINING

Kode can lift the gloom of poor campaign for Murphy

THE Joe Murphy-trained Silverkode should defy top-weight in today’s finale in Cork, the seven-furlong Buy And Save Online Via www.corkracecourse.ie Handicap. The four-year-old is only 2lb higher than when registering the second of two victories at the Curragh last summer. And, from a stable which has been under a cloud for most of the current campaign, he ran a cracker in a premier handicap at Leopardstown last time.

Having hit the front at the furlong-pole in the Sovereign Path Handicap, the Kodiac gelding was collared late and beaten a neck by Richard Fahey’s Zap on that occasion.

That was Silverkode’s fourth run of the season, having started with a third to St Brelade’s Bay at Gowran

Park before running creditably in a couple of Curragh handicaps.

This seven-furlong event looks a good opportunity for Gary Carroll’s mount to register his first success of 2018, at the expense of Dermot

Weld’s threeyear-old filly Betsey Trotter, a winner last time at Leopardstown, Thiswaycadeaux, a three-time winner this season, and Fuwairt, narrowly beaten by Shore Step on this track last Wednesday.

Joseph O’brien, successful with newcomer Midnight Run in yesterday’s bumper in Galway, might hold, the key to the listed Navigation Stakes in the shape of consistent threeyear-old filly Ship Of Dreams, the mount of Wayne Lordan.

This daughter of Lope De Vega has put together a succession of creditable efforts at a similar level, in including a neck second to Panstarr at Listowel and, last time, a close fourth to Broadway at Gowran Park.

She gets the nod over Jim Bolger’s, inset, Zorion and a couple of unexposed three-year-olds North Face and Moteo, successful in their only starts at Navan and Leopardstown, respectively.

Joseph O’brien has plenty of chances throughout the card. And King’s Field, denied a clear run when third to less-fancied stable-companion Dramatise on his second start, makes plenty of appeal in the seven-furlong Mallow Maiden.

GOOD OPPORTUNITY Kodiac gelding Silverkode can triumph in today’s finale in Cork