Donn McClean: Irish Champions Weekend, Curragh Sunday, free betting tips & preview

Donn's Best Bets, Curragh, Sunday September 10

• Tithonus, 2.00 Curragh
• Clemmie, 3.40 Curragh
• Click here to back the selections with Sky Bet

It was not easy for punters on the first day of Irish Champions Weekend at Leopardstown yesterday. Just one winning favourite out of eight, an average winning SP of over 10/1 and the two feature races going to 20/1 and 25/1 shots. It was a day of days for the bookmakers.

Day two kicks off with another daunting task, a 23-runner six-furlong handicap in which they will spread themselves across the track and charge, but Tithonus could be the answer. Denis Hogan’s horse has improved fairly dramatically since last summer. Winner of a handicap at the Galway Festival last year off a mark of 63, he races today off a mark of 96, but he has earned every ounce of that 33lb hike, and he may not be finished improving yet.

He won the Rockingham Handicap over five furlongs at The Curragh on Irish Derby weekend, and he won the Scurry Handicap over six and a half furlongs at The Curragh on Irish Oaks weekend. The handicapper raised him to today’s mark of 96 on the back of those wins, and he was well beaten at this year’s Galway Festival off that mark, but that was a different task: soft ground and seven furlongs at Galway around the bend and up the hill. He led from early, but he was a spent force when they caught him early in the home straight.

Dropped back to five and a half furlongs at York last time, he ran a cracker to finish fifth behind Desert Law. He raced towards the stands side that day in a race in which and at a meeting at which the far side appeared to be advantaged on the sprint track. He raced from stall 16, while the four horses who finished in front of him raced from, respectively, stalls eight, five, two and nine, and all four raced towards the far side.

Tithonus had to do a lot of running on the near side, yet he was only beaten a total of two lengths by the winner, and he was beaten a neck, a neck and a short head for the runner-up spot. It was a fine run on the face of it, and he can probably be marked up a fair bit on the bare form.

He should be even happier now back at The Curragh, a track at which he has won three of his four races, all three big field handicaps. The Kildare venue seems to suit his aggressive style of racing.

The ground was fast when he won the Scurry, but it was heavy when he won a five-furlong handicap at The Curragh last September, so he should handle the soft conditions well today. And he stays six furlongs well, so the extra premium that the ground will place on stamina is a positive.

Gary Halpin gets on well with him, he takes off a useful 3lb and, if the Glory Of Dancer gelding can get into a nice even racing rhythm on the front end early on, they may not catch him.

The Moyglare Stud Stakes is intriguing, not least because the evidence that it will provide will be a significant aid in the construction of the pecking order for this year’s juvenile fillies.

The Aidan O’Brien-trained Magical had her two better-fancied stable companions Happily and September behind her last time in the Group 2 Debutante Stakes, so it is understandable that she has been installed as favourite, but it may not be as simple as that.

The Galileo filly was very good in the Debutante, she stayed on well under a well-judged aggressive ride from Donnacha O’Brien. However, the Debutante form does not always hold up in the Moyglare. Intricately exacted her revenge on Hydrangea and Rhododendron in the Moyglare Stud Stakes last year, Minding reversed placings with Ballydoyle in the Moyglare two years ago. It may be that Happily and September will get closer to Magical today than they did in the Debutante.

However, Clemmie may prove to be best of the Ballydoyle fillies in today’s race, and that may be good enough to see her prevail. An eye-catcher on her racecourse debut at The Curragh on Guineas weekend, Churchill’s sister looked very good in getting off the mark in the Group 3 Grangecon Stud Stakes at The Curragh on Irish Derby weekend, and she improved from that when she stayed on strongly to land the Group 2 Duchess of Cambridge Stakes at Newmarket’s July meeting last time.

She had Nyaleti almost two lengths behind her in second place that day, and Mark Johnston’s filly came out next time and won a Group 3 race at Ascot by five lengths.

The fact that Ryan Moore rides Clemmie is another obvious positive. She continues to progress, and she could run a big race today.

Alpha Centauri could prove to be her biggest danger. Jessica Harrington’s filly was impressive in winning her first two races this season, and she ran a cracker in the Albany Stakes at Royal Ascot in going down by a neck to Different League. She is a fine filly who should continue to progress as the season goes on, she is proven on easy ground, and she could be the one who will give Clemmie most to do.

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