Sean - lets hope for 3rd time lucky here, conditions and the ones in the field that I am most interested in are almost identical to the first 2 aborted efforts to run this so I have no concern about my initial selection on Sunday 9th or rearranged one on Tuesday 11th both of which were abandoned.

 

If you were running a horse with the actual Irish or Grand National as the aim therefore, you may not wish to "bottom it out" here. Some may need a big run for a decent handicap mark to get it to bigger races others may just want to hide their mark a bit longer. A real conundrum.

 

Sometimes you get an instinct for a horse in a slog like this, form and logic overtaken by a calculated guess and there could be one of those in here.

 

Lets look at the obvious dangers, Augusta Gold is very consistent, lovely mare but upped considerably in trip, Forever Gold is now 13 and hard to see if figuring here; Rocky's Silver has two Course wins but like Augusta Gold the trip is a massive concern.

 

THE GATECHECKER is of interest but it always depends on the pre-race shenanighans with this horse. One to have a few bob on "in running" if it sets off OK settles and shows no signs of "fizzing over" during the preliminaries. With that possible side interest, I am left with a tip and two Trackers.

 

MON LINO has had 3 runs this season, one a Hurdle race over an inadequate Distance just to keep the horse ticking over clearly. It was runner up in the Porterstown to prove ability in this type of race trip, Going, mark all look right to me today and a very interesting horse worth following today and after today if aimed at some decent races.

 

The Trackers have to include KILLER MILLER who beat Mon Lino in the Porterstown off 127, goes off 133 today and if that form line is decent, I expect the tip and this horse to be very close once again.

 

My "instinct" keeps bringing me back to GENERAL PRINCIPLE. Has to all intents and purposes become a very disappointing and frustrating horse. Definitely ran better in the fog last time and if you really analyse runs over past 2 years, this is the first time it gets truly atritional conditions over a trip that seems ideal. It's going to be an absolute slog and the longer the horse is in a rhythm and keeps interested the better the chances of a place off a very appealing mark become.

 

TIP - 14 MON LINO 1 point e/w / TRACKERS @ 1/2 point e/w - 4 Killer Miller  + 6 General Principle