It's a big week for racing in County Kildare with the Punchestown Festival running for five days from Tuesday but first up Naas plays host to a quality card on this sun-kissed Monday.
The eight-race meeting kicks off with a two-year-old race featuring some very well-bred Juddmonte and Ballydoyle juveniles, while there's a number of tough handicaps on the card too.
In the Listed Woodlands Stakes, Make A Challenge ran extremely well on seasonal debut when he was possibly drawn on the wrong part of the track, beaten by today's rival Laugh A Minute.
A return to Naas, where he won here last year, should suit him well but his price is reflected in that now and he's too short really.
Keep an eye out for the last race in which Cazoo Derby entry Sir William Bruce makes his seasonal return. He was just nailed on he line on his second juvenile outing at Gowran Park.
The Dermot Weld-trained rival Moktaffy is the threat as his form has worked out very well following the Dundalk run and the Leopardstown run. It's probably another race to watch with interest.
My only selection today comes in division one of the mile handicap at 4.00. It's a very speculative bet but ELOY D'AMERVAL was a winner on debut for trainer Gerard Keane and in October 2020 when trained by Ger Lyons he was rated 88.
He now runs off a mark of 61 following a promising enough run from a very wide draw at Tipperary, on a day when the low draws were coming to the fore. He shaped far better than the bare result an the cheekpieces tried for the first time there are retained.
In a race that doesn't have much strength in depth, he's worth a small each-way interest under Seamie Heffernan again.
Published at 1108 BST on 26/04/21
