Leopardstown – Sunday 26th December

There is no finer feeling than waking up on the morning of St Stephen’s Day knowing that you have four days of brilliant action ahead from Leopardstown and Limerick. It is the dream of every National Hunt fan in Ireland and hopefully we see some great racing over the next couple of days. I’ll be focusing on the Irish action over the next couple of days from the daily selections, and will be looking to incorporate the British racing into the daily lucky 15 selections, so make sure to stay tuned to the channel for them. 

At Leopardstown, the first port of call is the 12.35 race, which is a 2m maiden hurdle and sees the hurdling debut of the Champion Bumper victor, Sir Gerhard. He should be very hard to beat, so therefore I have dipped my toe into the without the favourite market on this occasion, and to try and fight for places behind the most likely winner. The horse I have landed on is Meet and Greet, who looks like a strong competitor in this race after a very good hurdling debut. He won a bumper over this course and distance last March, where he beat the well thought of Top Bandit, who has been unbeaten over hurdles this season so far. He reappeared with a fine third on hurdling bow to Uthred, where he jumped well in the main and kept to the task. On Paddy Power, in the without market, he is 12/1 with 3 places available. This looks like a good bet in my eyes, as I think he could well find his way into the top 4 in this contest. 

The 1.45 race is the 2m handicap hurdle on the card and this race has no less than 28 runners going to post, so it is fair to say that it is an absolute minefield for punters. However, I have always been partial to a Tony Martin strong traveler, and he has a decent record in this race in recent years. He has two horses in this race and despite there being a price discrepancy, I fancy the two horses in this race. Starting with Marvel Fan, who comes into this race after hacking up at Gowran Park last time out under Bryan Cooper. Her handicap mark has gone up for this race, but that has been negated by the claim of Maxine O’Sullivan, so she should still be able to run very well off this revised mark. As a 5 year old, there is still plenty of untapped potential in this horse and he should go very close to following up. At a price of 13/2 with Bet365, who are offering 6 places, she is an each way bet. 

And the other Martin raider is the well handicapped Belgoprince, who ran a very eye-catching race last time out over hurdles at Cheltenham. In a competitive affair, he didn’t jump with much conviction before storming home for 9th. He will have to jump better on this occasion but he is entitled to keep improving given his age. He also won on the flat earlier this summer in impressive fashion, giving off the indication that this handicap mark over hurdles looks well within reach. Peter Carberry is doing an extremely light weight in the process to ride this horse, so fingers crossed those efforts can be rewarded. At a price of 20/1 wirth SkyBet, who offer 7 places – he is another each way bet. 

The final selection comes in the 2.55 race, which is a 2m handicap chase and is often a tough race to get to the bottom of. There are plenty in this race that you could make a case for. With a mare like Zarkareva, she should be well handicapped to run a good race in this given some of her novice chase form and also some of her handicap form this summer. There has been a lot of rain around today in Foxrock, so the ground may be a little softer than currently advertised, but this mare seems versatile enough and will be suited by the configurations of Leopardstown. SkyBet are very generously offering 5 places in this race, which seems generous from an each way perspective, and I will be backing her each way at a price of 9/1.