Ireland’s lone meeting on Wednesday comes from Fairyhouse. Our resident tipster has four selections for you on the day, including a well-regarded one for Joseph O’Brien.
Shaky Operator (4.55 Fairyhouse)
Though Golden Ticket comes out marginally on top on official figures, SHAKY OPERATOR is only 1lb below and in form more suggestive of a winner.
Trained by Jessica Harrington as a juvenile, he made little impact in maidens, but was third in his first venture into handicap company. Since then, he has seemingly struggled with his movement during races.
He was pulled up on the all-weather at Dundalk to end last season and has also returned without finishing this season at Gowran Park. On both occasions he lost his action and come back with niggling injuries. The first preceded a gelding operation, after which he initially finished a respectable fourth at Gowran off a mark of 70.
Then followed the second pulling up which necessitated an exit from the Harrington yard. He has joined Gerard O’Leary and though he came as close to winning as ever before when beaten less than two lengths at Ballinrobe in June, he still hung right and got unbalanced.
Nevertheless, though his action and behaviour cannot be completely trusted, he has useful efforts in his formbook. If replicating or improving upon them, he is hard to beat.
Ebendi (5.25 Fairyhouse)
The form of EBENDI’s runner-up finish last time has been franked in some style by the winner and gives Joseph O’Brien’s charge every chance of going one better in this contest.
The five-year-old has only raced six times in his career. The first three of those came in a three month stretch when with Dermot Weld, and yielded a victory in a Killarney maiden two years ago. He was also runner-up to Group 1 winner Order Of Australia in September 2020.
O’Brien obviously saw him as a stayer when he started out for the yard last August. However, after 326 days off the track, he could finish only fifth of seven over 2m1f at Killarney. Two months later, he was down the field in the Irish Cesarewitch over 2m off a mark of 91.
Both of those may have proved beyond him, but his aforementioned second last time out came against Beamish, who has subsequently followed up in Listed company and is unbeaten. Ebendi has to concede weight all round here, but looks very capable of doing so, having been over three lengths clear of the third last time out.
It Might Be You (6.25 Fairyhouse)
She may never have finished better than third in 14 career starts, but IT MIGHT BE YOU can be in amongst this off a career-low mark.
She was placed in maiden company early on in her racing life last season, while she also made the frame on her handicap debut off a mark of 67. That was over 5f and she struggled to maintain her form to the end of the season, but there have been signs of improvement at three.
She has raced in double-figure fields in ten of her 14 races, so winning has certainly been made trickier by Michael Mulvany’s more ambitious campaigning. However, a trio of fourth-placed efforts in competitive races in the last month have not halted the slide in her rating.
She now competes off a mark of 60. With the maiden she ran in at Bellewstown last week of a decent standard, a replication of that effort would leave her in with an excellent each-way chance at what could be a tasty price.
Ice Cold In Alex (7.30 Fairyhouse)
ICE COLD IN ALEX was runner-up in this race a year ago off a mark of 85 and returns here with a serious chance of going one better.
He ran a cracker 12 months ago, finishing a half-length second having won a 26-runner handicap at the Curragh just under two weeks previously. He is capable of sustaining his form when he gets on a roll and that may well prove extremely beneficial here.
After that excellent second, he had only seriously contended for victory once until returning to the same Curragh handicap he took in en route to this race last year. Once again, he ran well there, this time finishing third, beaten just a length.
Though he has been raised 5lb for that effort, he still only holds a rating of 83, 2lb lower than when narrowly denied last year. With Jake Coen taking off a very useful 7lb given his ability, Ken Condon’s eight-year-old should be feared.