The feature on the second day of Listowel is the £20,000 Supporters Club Lartigue Hurdle and in a typically competitive contest Master Cooper is just preferred to follow in some illustrious footsteps.
The progressive Quinze, who was won five flat handicaps on the trot this summer, took this prize last year and if flat sequences, and the Lartigue go hand in hand, then Master Cooper is well qualified.
The in-form David Hanley has shrewdly placed Master Cooper to win three handicaps this flat season, a significantly improved stretch of form for the gelding, and that improvement was maintained when Master Cooper danced in at long odds-on in a hurdle at Clonmel.
The bare form is nothing to write home about but Master Cooper, ridden by the season's leading rider Ruby Walsh, is clearly going the right way and looks a different proposition to the horse which had just placed form over hurdles last winter.
Preference for him is only marginal though as there are plenty in here with similar chances. The GPT winner Shantarini, despite topweight, will have his followers if he runs and so will Mumaris, Darbela and Christy Roche's Aerleon Pete. A bigger danger, however, to Master Cooper could be Tom Foley's Samapour who ran an encouraging race on the flat in Galway last time.
It's an eight-race marathon today so with a good start essential it looks advisable to go with past Kerry form in the Vintners Maiden. Antrim Coast ran a good race to be runner-up to Titus in a Tralee maiden that turned into a big betting heat. Similar ructions in the ring today could be a positive pointer to Con Collins' horse beating Kerry Belle, second to Nasanice at Fairyhouse, and Juinevera.
