Sunday Mirror (Northern Ireland)
FAIRY TALE
A Golden chance for Weld’s charge to claim the spoils at Naas this afternoon
DERMOT WELD’S Yulong Gold Fairy can land the €100,000 Foran Equine Irish EBF Auction Race Final at Naas today.
The card is the latest episode in the thrilling battle between Pat Smullen and Colin Keane for this season’s Irish jockey’s championship.
The pair are serving up a tremendous tussle for title honours and both have good chances over the course of this fixture.
Smullen (right) rides
Yulong Gold Fairy in the day’s feature and it is hard to look past the chances of this useful filly.
Last time out she won a qualifier for this race at the Galway Festival and she showed that day that seven furlongs on slow ground is no problem to her.
Colin Keane has solid prospects of a double with his mount Mustajeer making plenty of appeal in the 10 furlong handicap.
This gelding has to shoulder top weight on his Irish debut but there are several reasons for siding with him.
The Ger Lyons inmate has dropped back to a mark of 91 having once been rated as high as 98. His form last season included a fine second in a Newmarket Listed race which was won by the subsequent Group 1 winner Ventura Storm.
In addition Lyons and owner David Spratt have a brilliant record with similar recruits from Britain.
Keane is also tipped to take the opener on It’s All A Joke who ran respectably on his debut last week. In the Birdcatcher Nursery it could pay to side with Jim Bolger’s Solar Wave who has already won twice this season. This tough and reliable filly would have run well in a Navan Listed race last weekend only to be stopped in her run at a vital stage.
She likes soft ground and six furlongs suits her well while her trainer has a tremendous record in this race.
In the first of the Listed races on the card Petticoat is put forward to strike for Michael Halford.
In the Bluebell Stakes is should pay to side with the fast improving Detailed whose triumph in last weekend’s Martin Molony Stakes earns her the vote.
The apprentice handicap is a tricky affair but Kandahari could prevail if he bounces back to the form that took him to a Gowran victory two months ago.