MICHAEL - Punchestown 2.45 Handicap Hurdle - 2 miles 3 furlongs - Heavy - 12 declared

 

A fair number of these return after significant breaks and others are unproven at the trip or clearly prefer better ground. I quickly focussed on three of the field, with a quick side note about Extrapolation who heads the market but off a break and doubts about the Going and Rodanice who runs for Elliott and showed promise 2 years ago but very little recently. 

 

I think that the biggest danger to my selections and therefore reserve is Cafe Con Leche who is up 8lbs and also 2 furlongs in trip for a recent win.

 

I am particularly keen on DANCING JEREMY here, a Course and Distance winner off a mark of 108, and that form has been franked since and placed off 116, a mark of 117 is by no means a shoe-in but clearly a horse at home in these conditions and in form.

 

I am surprisingly bullish about the rag of the market BOIS DE CLAMART, 33's would be massively overpriced as it's clearly had 2 preparation runs, one over too short a trip to blow away the cobwebs, the other over clearly too far to tune the stamina angle, I like to see that sort of trend in a horse and third time out over optimum trip in optimum conditions and running most likely from the front, I will be very disappointed if this one isn't placed at the very least.

 

Tips (1) Dancing Jeremy (2) Bois De Clamart