Our Irish racing expert Tony Keenan has one selection for this afternoon's card at Tipperary.
Irish racing tips: Sunday October 5
0.5pts win Evening Blossom in 2.43 Tipperary at 16/1 (General)
Longchamp is where it’s at today with six Group 1s, but Tipperary provides their usual Arc Day accompaniment with Super Sunday. The National Hunt racing on the card may approach that title as there are a few decent Willie Mullins types running though the flat races are underwhelming with just 20 runners spread across three of them.
Acclamatic has the best form in the opening Irish Stallion Farms EBF Maiden at 1:33 but hardly sets a high bar and it would be no surprise to see one of the Ballydoyle second time out runners improve past him. Neither Claret nor Archers Bay showed much on debut but that doesn’t always matter with Aidan O’Brien and the favourite looks short enough this morning.
The Great National Ballykisteen Golf Hotel Handicap (2:08) has drawn a small field and perhaps Akecheta will prove a class act here. She can a little hard to win with but seems well-suited by slow ground, her record on soft or worse reading:12421, despite her trainer saying otherwise after her recent win.
She has spent most of the season racing on faster ground, acquitting herself well in competitive handicaps at major English festivals, and this is much easier. Perhaps her biggest danger will prove Grey Leader who has been inconsistent this season but has dropped to a decent mark and shaped a little better than the result when getting a wide trip at Listowel last time.
Form from that Kerry track might provide a way into the flat feature, the Listed Coolmore Sioux Nation Concorde Stakes at 2:43. EVENING BLOSSOM could finish only fourth of six in another Listed race at the Harvest Festival 12 days ago but she had little chance from her position in the rear of the field then, held up off a slow pace on a day when all seven of the winners raced forward.
She finished off well then and was as fast as the winner in the last three furlongs, suggesting she had more to give. She was sent off 11/4 for that race and while this is stronger, a few of the higher rated ones have penalties and Deepone has a bit to prove dropping back in trip.
Evening Blossom has improved since the tongue-tie went on this season, her record on yielding-to-soft or slower reads:37114, the 7 coming on seasonal return, and probably doesn’t deserve to be the outsider of the field.
Of the national hunt races, the Horse & Jockey Hotel Hurdle at 3:53 is a decent race though sorting between the one-two-four from the Grimes Hurdle here in July isn’t easy with a couple of those runners having disappointed a little since.
In the ODS Engineering Novice Chase at 5:00, Gold Dancer looks a solid favourite, having beaten two decent types in his two chase runs this summer, and might be up to defying his penalty.
Preview posted at 0848 on 05/10/25
More from Sporting Life
- Racecards
- Fast results
- Full results and free video replays
- Horse racing news
- Horse racing tips
- Horse racing features
- Download our free iOS and Android app
- Football and other sports tips
- Podcasts and video content
Safer gambling
We are committed in our support of safer gambling. Recommended bets are advised to over-18s and we strongly encourage readers to wager only what they can afford to lose.
If you are concerned about your gambling, please call the National Gambling Helpline / GamCare on 0808 8020 133.
Further support and information can be found at begambleaware.org and gamblingtherapy.org.