Fairyhouse Day One – Saturday 16th April

The great finish to the National Hunt season continues this weekend at Fairyhouse, who host their three-day Easter Festival Meeting. This meeting, which concludes with the Irish Grand National on Monday – has become a staple of the season for all jumps fans. I will be looking through the Saturday card in this article and trying to make sense of it – with a few bets.

Starting with the opening race on the card, which is the 1.55 Maiden Hurdle over 2 miles and four furlongs. A few of these horses have been slightly frustrating in recent times, and it may take a leap of faith to back one of them. I’m going to keep that faith in Chiricahua, who is a talented albeit disappointing horse over hurdles thus far. Last time out at Wexford, he made a costly blunder at halfway and unseated rider. However, the form of his second the time before at Leopardstown reads well and would entitle him to a big chance in a race of this nature. If back to his best, he should be in the finish here. At a price of 5/1 with Paddy Power, I will be backing him each way.

I will be waiting till the 4:15 race before having my second bet on the card, and this comes in the three-mile novices handicap hurdle. As one could expect for a prize like this, it is vastly competitive. I’m going to side with one at a big price and you’re going to have to scroll a few bars down to get to this horse in the betting. However, taking his class angle into consideration – I’m going to take a chance on Eric Bloodaxe, who seems massively overpriced based off his early season form. He has been well beaten the last twice, but one can excuse both those efforts and he returns to much calmer waters here. Although having to give weight away to all these rivals, he may well have the requisite class to do so. At a huge price of 25/1, with Paddy Power offering five places each way, I think he is worth and each way bet.

The final selection of the day comes in the two-mile handicap hurdle at 4:50. This is the feature race on the card tomorrow and is often one of the trickiest races to solve all year. I’m going to side with race form on this occasion and will be backing Hearts Are Trumps for Dessie McDonogh and Simon Torrens. This horse won this race last year off a higher mark and despite having to overcome an absence on this occasion, he should be primed to go very well over his favorite course and distance. He arrived into last year’s race in a similarly poor form, before getting the better of his multiple rivals on that occasion. He seems to have been missed in the betting this time around, and I will be backing him ask 20/1 with Paddy Power – who are offering five places.