Equinties - Dublin Racing Festival

Gm Equinauts

Ah, the WiIlie Mullins festival…sorry, the DRF. When punters call Cheltenham the home of jumps racing, the DRF is affectionately known as the home of the piss up.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with that but let’s be honest, they’d never have the Cheltenham Festival on the same time as the Six Nations would they!?

Unless you’re actually in Leopardstown, the DRF is simply racing you can catch up on later, if not able to catch a race in between all the rugby and the football on, to make sure all the Willie Mullins form makes sense coming in to Cheltenham.

There’s nothing wrong with the DRF being a better drinking festival than a racing festival - you’d rather be the best at something than nothing at all, but let’s be honest unless you’re there, your Saturday isn’t the DRF.

Let’s dive in.

HEADINE ROUND UP

BOODLES HOPE

Working out horses for the Boodles/Fred Winter at this stage of the season is always fun if you’re life is boring.

Does one pick out the horses who finished 20 lengths behind Triumph Hurdle contenders or is it worth sticking with the rapidly-improving winners? We know what we’d go for.

Well, Harry Derham is set to have a contender that kind of fits neither of these categories as TURN AND FINISH just got the job done yesterday.

Yes, he’s a winner, but the margin of success was only a nose and he probably didn’t improve too much on his Irish form shown with Joseph O’Brien to get the job done.
But, it seems like Derham didn’t expect him to, as he said: "It was a messy, unsatisfactory race and he was well short of maximum fitness.

“He came over from Joseph and we gave him a break when he got here. We just wanted to give him a race to help with our preparations for the Fred Winter.

"That's nowhere near his best and he'll be much better in a strongly run race coming off the pace. His Irish form also suggests that. It's job done, though, and all roads lead to the Cheltenham Festival.”

So, what about the horse. Is he any use?

Well, it’s funny, the race wasn’t run to suit and yet he was the one making the early running. He was quite keen under Paul O’Brien until LIKELMAN was too much for the guide of Bruce Lynn and he hit the front with a circuit to go.

That settled him better, and he looked like a decent hurdler. His shape over the hurdles was quite sharp in fairness, and to be that keen early on, he was always going to pay for it in the final furlong.

Derham has a nice chance for the Boodles here as long as he learns to settle. Hopefully he does this with a run under his belt, but the Tuesday of the Festival could blow his head off.

If you fancy him, he’s a 33/1-shot to do so.

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