Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
BEACON TOO BRIGHT
Edge to be shining light in Galway feature
WITH a fitness advantage, the Noel Meade-trained Beacon Edge might prove too strong for classy mare Minella Melody and Gordon Elliott’s expensive purchase Grand Roi in the Grade 3 Marlin Hotel Dublin Hurdle, feature of an eight-race card in Galway tomorrow.
A Gigginstown-owned six-year-old, Beacon Edge – winner of his maiden hurdle at Punchestown –went within a nose of Grade 2 success at Naas in February, beaten by Jason The Militant, and again came close to victory at the County Kildare venue when beaten a neck by Cedarwood Road in a later listed event.
No e l Me a d e c o n si d e re d sending Beacon Edge over fences this season. But his decision to delay the inevitable was rewarded when the Doyen gelding justified 4/11 favouritism in a minor event at Downpatrick recently – stretching clear up the hill to slam Rocky Court.
Meade’s charge, op en to further improvement, faces a stiff task conceding weight to his three rivals.
Henry de Bromhead’s Minella Melody, winner of a bumper and three hurdles, including defeat of the classy Colreevy in the Group 3 Solerina at Fairyhouse. But she flopped when favourite in the Mares Novice at the Cheltenham Festival.
But she’s a high-class mare and a major threat here, along with four-year-old Grand Roi, bought out of Nicky Henderson’s for £400,000, having won a Wincanton bumper and minor hurdles at Fakenham and Warwick.
Gordon Elliott’s Spanish Moon gelding fits into the “could be anything” category and deserves plenty of respect in a fascinating four-runner affair.
Beacon Edge’s stable-companion Lieutenant Command, impressive in a Limerick bumper last Christmas before finishing third to Appreciate It in a Grade 2 at Leopardstown in February, is interesting on his hurdling bow in the Glenman Construction Maiden Hurdle, in which he has Gordon Elliott’s well-regarded Coqolino, second to Bob Olinger on his debut at Gowran Park in March, to fear.