Sporting Life – Sunday, March 15th, 2026
0.5 pt e.w. Highbury See See in the Curragh 4:20 at 12/1 (1,2,3,4,5,6 1/5 12/1 Bet365, 11/1 General)
It is a culture shock to go from Cheltenham to the Curragh in less than 48 hours, but the two meetings do have something in common, the opening day of the flat turf season presenting punters with challenging big fields like most the Festival just gone.
Chief among those challenges is the Nua Healthcare Irish Lincolnshire at 4:20, a race where is cases can be made for many. Towards the top of the weights, last year’s winner Orandi should be competitive again, the form of the 2025 running strong and he shaped better than the result in the Doncaster equivalent shortly afterwards too, making his challenge away from the two that beat him.
Norwalk Havoc is another near the top of the weights with claims. He had a messy campaign last season, on and off the track, but again peaked at Leopardstown at the backend, winning the Knockaire for the second year in a row. Perhaps that race is his specialist subject, but he did shape very well in the 2024 English Cambridgeshire off a similar mark to today, winning his side, and conditions are ideal.
Towards the bottom of the weights, Ribee looks a little overpriced, his form taking off when the tongue-tie was applied last season, soft ground a positive for him too and his yard have an ok record in the race too.
HIGHBURY SEE SEE is the selection, however, in the hope that he will get cover and be delivered late, a scenario that seems to suit him well. He was ridden forward plenty on his initial starts but put up what was a career best effort at the time when winning at Gowran last June, dropped out near last but picking up well to win with a bit in hand. It is typically difficult to execute those tactics at that track, and he was the only winner to come from behind on that card.
He went to Galway where he ran fine though making the running may not have suited and then had a break before Listowel where he again shaped well in third, forced out onto the unfavoured outer of the track turning in and closing to the line.
By this point in the year, connections seem to have decided that hold up tactics worked best with him and he won over the Lincoln course and distance in October, travelling nicely just off the pace and conceding first run to the second but picking up well to lead on the line.
In this afternoon’s big field, there should be plenty of opportunity to get some cover and while luck in running well be needed, hopefully he can be delivered late.
The remainder of the card is difficult but perhaps the first and third from one of the sprint handicaps at this meeting last year, Back Down Under and Tai Tam Bay, can go well in similar races this year.
Back Down Under is up in grade in the Nua's Canine Therapy Handicap at 3:10 but showed she is capable at this level last year, including when third in the Scurry, and her mark looks fine. The concern is that a well-run five furlongs may suit her best.
Tai Tam Bay is back for the same race again, the Nua's Mobile Sensory Units Handicap at 2:35, but this time is an awful lot lower in the weights, 18lbs in all. She lost her way after that initial run last year but some of that was due to not getting her preferred soft ground and she came back to form in a pair of seven-furlong races at this track late in the season.
On both occasions, she showed lots of pace before not getting home so a drop in trip should suit though her record of one win from 26 career starts suggests she is not one to chase the price down too far on.
Published at 08:27 GMT on 15/03/26
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