This week Paddy Power, in conjunction with Sporting Life and Timeform, brings racing fans a Galway and Goodwood preview featuring big-name pundits including top amateur pilot and Sporting Life columnist Patrick Mullins, former Flat jockey turned Racing TV broadcaster Fran Berry and Paddy Power horse racing principal trader and all-round good egg Frank Hickey with our very own Paddy Power himself as the genial host.
The show, recorded on Monday, can be found and viewed on the Paddy Power Racing YouTube channel. The show is a brilliant hour of racing insight so tune in to also hear Fran and Frank’s thoughts on the big races on both sides of the Irish Sea.
Monday 6.40 Connacht Hotel (Q.R.) Handicap
Do you know what you’re definitely riding yet – Lot Of Joy, Patrick?
"Well we’re going to get stuck into them this week and to me the two ones that look like I could ride are Lot Of Joy or Scaramanga.
Lot Of Joy she was fourth in it last year, but it was her first run for us so we hadn’t maybe much in time to improve her. I always think our Flat horses when they’ve had a winter’s hurdling with hardship under their belt I think they’ve more room to improve.
"So even though she had ran twice, I think she might have more scope to improve so 96, you’d be near the top weight, it’s a very hard race to carry over 11 stone in, very rarely can get a horse to do that so that’s what might swing me towards Scaramanga. He’s rated 89, again yes he ran on the Flat for us twice last year, but they were his first two runs for us - he’s slightly different, he was in Paul Nicholls’s, he had the hardship being a Jumps horse before so he probably doesn’t have much scope to improve.
"But carrying 7lb less than Lot Of Joy would be very interesting. So it’ll depend how they work and to be honest I’ll probably wait and see what draw they get as well before making a decision. Ideally you don’t want to be banging on the paint or too wide so definitely I think being drawn in the middle can be an advantage, but it depends where horses around you are drawn as well, whether they’re going to drop in or go forward so you want to be able to see that before you make the final decision if it’s a close call."
Paddy Power odds: 5 Lot Of Joy, Teed Up, 8 Chally Chute, Immelmann, Jesse Evans, 12 Powerful Aggie, Weston, 14 White Caviar, 16 Anna Bunina, Cougar, Dartan, Mr Escobar, Scaramanga, The Very Man, 20 bar
Wednesday, 6.40 Galway Plate
Is this a long-term plan for some horses or is it see what sort of horse you have?
"Willie doesn’t massively do long-term plans, he barely does short-term plans! You come out of Punchestown at the end of the season, what’s going to stay in and go to Galway?
"Kilcruit won the 2m 5f novice handicap chase which I think is a great prep race, quite a similar race. He’s a horse with a huge amount of ability, he was second to Sir Gerhard in the champion bumper, I rode him then in spring novices and in Punchestown. He didn’t jump for me – there was something catching him, he should have beat Jonbon for second behind Constitution Hill and I thought he should have got a lot closer to State Man but there was something catching him that time.
"He was a little slow to get started over fences, but you know sure off 146 he won 15 lengths in Punchestown so the trip will suit, the track will suit and the whole thing with this race is Hewick running in it off a mark of 167. Usually 160 Kilcruit would be carrying 11st 12lb or 11st 10lb, instead he’s going to be carrying under 11st 7lb, that has to be huge.
"Hewick is obviously he won it off 155 last year, he was going to run well off 163 in the Kerry National, he’s going to be bang there again, I think we’ve seen in several races in the last couple of years proper Grade 1 horses can carry big weights in these handicaps which wasn’t the case for a long time or wasn’t tried for a long time. But that also brings Easy Game into it – he was second in it two years ago off 157 so a higher mark than Hewick won it with.
"He’ll be two pounds higher this year and the year he was second his rider dropped his stick turning in, he never really got to get stuck into him so he was maybe unlucky not to win. He’s won nine from 12 since then which is incredible, yes he ran bad in the race last year but he got badly hampered at the fourth last and just didn’t go with the next two fences around the bend, down the hill two in the straight, he never got a chance to get back into it.
"So Easy Game again he’s not unexposed but he’d run well off this mark and he’s so consistent. I think he’s probably going to be a great each-way price. And then outside of the obvious I think Authorized Art again again could be an each-way play for some people. He’s got winter form, he ran very well in Limerick in a Grade 1 behind Gerri Colombe and Kilcruit, he has a 14lb swing with Kilcruit from their Punchestown run, but I think his form tapered off at the end of the season.
"He ran well around Galway before – I just think again with Hewick there, he’s going to be in the 10 stones, he’s lightly raced, slightly unexposed, he could be overpriced."
Paddy Power odds: 6 Final Orders, Kilcruit, 7 Fury Road, 8 Ash Tree Meadow, Enniskerry, 9 Hewick, 10 Hollow Games, Lifetime Ambition, 12 Gevrey, The Goffer, 14 Andy Dufresne, Easy Game, Gabbys Cross, 16 bar
Thursday, 5.05, Guinness Galway Hurdle
You’ve won it three times, including on Sharjah, are you likely to be riding him again?
"I don’t know look we’ve schooled him over fences, we schooled him over fences before we went to Tipperary and we just said that race was worth 70 grand and we said we’ll take our chance.
"I was probably too confident on him, got too far back on a flat track, quick ground so he could go for a beginners’ chase as well, there’s a 2m 2f beginners’ chase, he’ll probably be entered for that. Look when he won the Galway Hurdle, he was rated 146, he’s 152 now and he’s five years older – now Saldier and Aramon won it off 155 but they were younger horses obviously so I don’t know what Willie will do but the plan was to maybe go chasing and so he might not turn up here.
"But I think we’ve got a serious team [and I’ll get the leg up on something] if I can do the weight and I know last year there was an owner trying to get me to ride one in it but Willie wouldn’t let me. Anyway it didn’t win. Look I think Tekao, Zarak The Brave and Bialystok are three serious chances - Zarak The Brave and Tekao stand out to me – they are only four-year-olds, only one four-year-old has won it in the last 30 years, Perugino Diamond, the O’Farrell colours, so but I think French-bred four-year-olds are different beasts – they’re not like Irish four-year-olds – and Prairie Dancer was third in it last year being a four-year-old so I think I’m happy to forgive that.
"Look Tekao to me is much better than his mark, he boiled over in the Fred Winter, the false start, he wears a hood, he ran very well at Punchestown, he got a little break and came back probably needed the race in Tipperary, hopefully that will have him ready for Galway. [The hectic start] is going to be a worry, it is going to be a concern, but you’d like to think he’s had more experience now and that should stand to him because he had to handle that in Punchestown as well, but he might be ridden slightly differently now that he’s had that kind of settling run.
"We’re 133, he has to be better than that so it’s just a case of whether he can get the luck. Zarak The Brave 145 but like I said he could be the Grade 1 horse, his run behind Lossiemouth and Gala Marceau, he missed some of the middle of the season, he had a colic so you know he has potential to be better than his runs in the spring and like I said Sharjah, Aramon, Saldier won it with 146, 155 so you can win off that kind of mark, he has to have a huge chance.
"Bialystok a horse with a lot of speed – I can’t wait to go back on the Flat with him, he didn’t handle soft ground in the winter. He’s a real good ground horse, a lot of speed, the hill might be a slight concern and he’s 6lb worse off with Tekao, but at the prices, I think Zarak The Brave is probably a big price for a potential Grade 1 horse."
Paddy Power odds: 6 Filey Bay, 9 Glan, Tekao, 10 Buddy One, 11 Brazil, My Mate Mozzie, 12 Party Central, 14 Father Of Jazz, Merlin Giant, Mighty Tom, Sharjah, Tudor City, Zarak The Brave, 16 Bialystok, Captain Conby, Mighty Tom, Path D’Oroux, Tudor City, 20 bar
Best bet of the week, Patrick?
"I think Zarak The Brave could be a Grade 1 horse in a handicap."
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