THERE was a fair amount of last minute rejigging of Thursday's card at Leopardstown.
The €100,000 Nasrullah Handicap and the lesser value three-year-old handicap over the same 10-furlong distance had to be removed from the card because of inadequacies at the Dublin track regarding ongoing drainage works in the vicinity of the 10-furlong start.
The two races have now been switched to Navan tomorrow. A €100k Flat handicap at Navan on a midsummer Friday night. This dilution of the Leopardstown card leaves a mile handicap worth €15,600 to the winner as the night’s feature. It manages to attract just six runners.
Jim Bolger landed the €100k feature race on this card 12 months ago with Chance To Dance and has an opportunity to follow up at this lesser level with Algonquin, a Dundalk maiden winner who returned with a Curragh handicap success last month.
A 6lb rise may not be enough to halt him, but he was due to run at Naas last night and Gowran scorer Rummaging, Strait Of Zanzibar and Breathe Easy – who almost sprang a 25-1 surprise on his reappearance – will be ready to pounce if the favourite defects.
The seven-furlong juvenile race for winners is an intriguing contest to get things under way. Bolger is double-handed, with no-hoper Gleine the most experienced in the line-up, but Sanus Per Aquam looks his main contender following an impressive debut success over seven furlongs at the Curragh when pulling well clear of Ballydoyle’s Lieutenant General.
O’Brien provides serious opposition again in the shape of Port Douglas, who came home really nicely once the penny dropped when scoring in style here on debut last month, while Dermot Weld takes the wraps off well-bred newcomer Palmetto Dunes.
Bolger and O’Brien go head-to-head again in the Irish Stallion Farms EBF Fillies Maiden when represented by Stellar Glow and On A Pedestal respectively, with both looking to improve on promising second-placed finishes last time out.
Little doubt in my book that Stellar Glow will emerge on top for the Manning/Bolger alliance.
There are two handicaps over the little used 13-furlong distance this evening and the Hermitage Green Handicap is the stronger one.
Hazariban is useful in this sort of company side with him here in this competitive handicap. The six-year-old gelding won his last two over this trip and was a decent third to He’s Our Man on his most recent outing at Limerick.
Ebony Roc is a half-interesting contender lurking at the bottom of the handicap. The son of Shirocco has been campaigned solely over hurdles since joining Gordon Elliott, showing little when last back in Killarney over a year ago. But he did win twice on the level when trained in Britain by Amanda Perrett. He will be ridden by Wayne Lordan here and off a mark of 60 he may be able to make his presence felt. But he hasn’t run on the Flat since October of 2013.
Handicap debutant Askmour has some decent maiden efforts to her name and she might give a good account of herself, while other leading contenders are recent Tipperary winner Daliyan, Winter Lion for Matthew Smith and Cailini Alainn for John Oxx. Hazariban will take beating.
The Bolger-trained Deontas takes on recent course winner Hurricane Sky, upped 8lb for that, in the other one-mile-five-furlong handicap but I’d much rather rely on Shark Hanlon’s Baby Jake.
Rated 44 here and has to race off 47 but is about to go up to his new mark of 52, an 8lb hike. That’s a nice cushion.
The trainer can follow up in the one-mile-seven-furlong amateur race with his Galway-bound Hidden Cyclone, a 158-rated chaser at his best. Should beat Edward O’Grady’s triple bumper winner Prickly.
NEVILLE RING
5.50pm: Port Douglas
6.20pm: Algonquin
6.50pm: Stellar Glow (Dbl)
7.20pm: Baby Jake (Nap)
7.55pm: Hazariban
8.30pm: Ruler Of France
9pm: Hidden Cyclone
NEXT BEST
5.50pm: Samus Per Aquam
6.20pm: Rummaging
6.50pm: On A Pedestal
7.20pm: Hurricane Sky
7.55pm: Winter Lion
8.30pm: Oddysey
9pm: Prickly
