WILLIE McCREERY is enjoying a fine year with his juveniles and can get another win on the board in the nursery at Down Royal on Friday with Hot To The Touch.
The Curragh handler has an impressive 25 per cent strike rate with his two-year-olds this season and any punters who followed him would be up a massive £51 to a pound stake.
Hot To The Touch tackles handicap company for the first time after a big run in a maiden at Killarney last month when she finished runner-up. She just gave way in the closing stages then after making the running and the drop back a furlong should suit now.
That was her best run to date and she has a progressive profile which is always encouraging. A mark of 74 here doesn’t look harsh as there looks to be more to come from the daughter of Aussie Rules.
Top-weight Nice And Dandy is an interesting runner having shown some good form early in the season. He chased home subsequent Royal Ascot winner Washington DC at Tipperary in April and it wasn’t a bad effort even though the winner was in a different league that day.
His absence since then is a worry though and it remains to be seen how well handicapped he is on his return.
John Oxx has a good strike rate at the track and Angelic Demon who was a decent fourth on her handicap debut at Gowran earlier in the month could be a danger.
The opening two-year-old maiden sees Anania return to the course having made a promising debut here back in June. She was a touch disappointing on her subsequent start at Fairyhouse but ran a cracker in Tipperary last month and on that run she’d be hard to beat.
The winner has gone on to finish a decent fourth in Group Three company and she had a solid sort in Zebgrey behind in third. Her mark of 82 looks conservative enough.
Zeb’s Fantasy, who has been placed on her three starts to date, can get off the mark in the auction maiden on the card.
The Ulster Cesarewitch has attracted a decent field and looks a tricky one to sort out.
Whiteout still looks unexposed on the Flat. She ran well for a long way in the big amateur event at Galway and just wasn’t able to quicken after they sprinted in the straight. She’s been dropped 3lb since and looks to have the stamina for this two-mile-four-furlongs marathon trip.
