Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Jupiter can run rings around Jim
JOSEPH O’BRIEN’S unexposed four-year-old Dance Jupiter should take plenty of beating in the Jim Ryan Racecourse Services Handicap, intriguing centrepiece of today’s eight-race flat card in Limerick.
The Kingsbarns gelding turned over O’brien hot-pot Patrick Sarsfield in a Cork maiden last autumn and was subsequently bought by connections of the runner-up, a hugely progressive performer this season.
Dance Jupiter made his belated return to action in a rated event in Galway and, ridden patiently, came through to get within threequarters of a length of Teed Up, a solid yardstick.
Raised 3lb for that run, the selection made his handicap debut at the Curragh last time. Sent off
favourite, he travelled well throughout and came from mid-division – not enjoying the clearest of runs along the way – to finish third behind Carrytheone.
The handicapper reacted by raising Dance Jupiter another 3lb. And, off a mark of 95, he faces some battle-hardened rivals today, notably Irish Cambridgeshire runner-up Quizical, listed-placed Flaming Moon and Jim Bolger’s Sheer Bravado, up a total of 28lb for a recent hat-trick.
But, in the belief we haven’t yet seen the best of Dance Jupiter, he is napped to land the spoils under Shane Crosse, fresh from his first Group 1 success on Pretty Gorgeous in the Fillies Mile yesterday.
Earlier, Joe Murphy’s Departmentalize, beaten a head by Teed Up in a Roscommon maiden on only his second start, sets the standard in the Patrickswell Maiden.