Runner won’t be caught in Naas showpiece

WILLIE Mullins could be the man to follow on the last day of the 2021 Irish flat season with the trainer’s Maze Runner getting the vote in the day’s feature at Naas.

The champion National Hunt trainer fields several contenders for the €80,000 Colm White Bookmaker November Handicap with Maze Runner making most appeal.

A very useful jumper who won a big pot at Leopardstown last February, this six-year-old showed up very well to take third in the Irish Cesarewitch earlier this month.

If he turns out in similar form he will be the one to beat as he holds quite a few of his rivals on that Curragh run.

He might have most to fear from the improving Joseph O’brien-trained filly Powerful Aggie.

She won nicely at Killarney at the start of this month and followed that by landing a decent Leopardstown handicap two weeks ago.

She has crept up a stone in the weights but there could still be more to come from her.

Earlier on the card the Tally-ho Stud Irish EBF Birdcatcher Nursery has attracted a highly competitive 16-strong field.

A case could be made for a few of these but preference is for the Fozzy Stack-trained joint top weight Thunder Eclipse.

He is a course and distance winner and has shown a good level of form throughout the season, finishing out of the frame just once.

Thunder Eclipse has also shown that he can hander slow ground which is another positive.

The Listed Finale Stakes is another highly competitive affair and a chance is taken on the soft ground loving Pineapple Express.

She has a bit to do on ratings but this filly is coming forward all the time and she is another who will love the ground.

On her most recent start she ran well to finish a close fourth in a Listed race at this track a fortnight ago and that run gives her a chance of getting involved.

Another proven soft ground performer is Team Of Firsts and he is put forward as the answer to the concluding handicap.

He has been a little off on his last two starts but the Navan race he contested last time may have been a stronger affair than it looked at the time.

After only five runs he might yet be open to a little more improvement.

Sounds Of Spring has been in good form lately and this useful soft ground sprinter can end his season on a high in the five furlong handicap.