RACING ROUND-UP:PUNCHESTOWN SWINGS into action again this afternoon and Chaperoned could be the answer to the feature event for the Jessica Harrington-Robbie Power team.
A dozen line up for the Listed Grabel Mares Hurdle and there will be plenty of focus on the versatile Elyaadi who drops from Group One flat company in Longchamp’s Prix Du Cadran just 10 days ago.
Elyaadi finished well out the back on that occasion, and was actually disqualified due to Kieren Fallon weighing in light, but at her best she was able to finish runner-up at Royal Ascot in June in the Queen Alexandra. John Queally’s mare also has some smart form over jumps but she has had a busy summer and the trainer was concerned about that. “She has had a busy enough year and I just hope it’s not a race too many,” Queally said. “It would be great to win a Listed and if the French race hasn’t taken too much out of her, I think she’ll be hard to beat.”
Chaperoned also ran on the flat on her last start when chasing home Hidden Universe at Navan last week. The four-year-old mixed it with some good juveniles last season and that recent effort should have put her right for this.
Power and Harrington will also fancy their chances in the opening three-year-old hurdle as the forecast decent-ground conditions could be key to Why But Why’s chance. Runner-up on his Roscommon debut over jumps, Why But Why was a flop at Listowel on very different ground behind One Cool Shabra.
Stonemaster won a couple of decent hurdle prizes last spring and a 149 rating over the smaller obstacles gives Dessie Hughes’s runner an obvious shout on his chasing debut today.
Colm O’Donoghue faces a busy weekend across the Atlantic as he will team up with Together in a Kentucky Grade One on Saturday before heading to Toronto the following day for the Canadian International. Both Treasure Beach and St Nicholas Abbey remain as possibles for the $1.5 million (€1.1m) International at the Woodbine track in Toronto but reports in Canada indicate the three-year-old Treasure Beach is the most likely starter for Aidan O’Brien. “I ride Together in Keeneland on the Saturday and head to Canada the following morning,” O’Donoghue said yesterday. “Hopefully we’ll be able to get a result.”
