Mastercraftsman looks set to give his master trainer another classic
DELEGATOR is as short as 7/4 to land tomorrow’s Boylesports Irish 2000 Guineas at the Curragh after his gallant display on rock hard ground at Newmarket. Brian Meehan’s colt proved all his doubters wrong that day by travelling smoothly throughout and only finding Sea The Stars too good. The son of Dansili proved that his Craven performance was no fluke and is a worthy favourite for this one mile contest.
However, the big worry is the ground which is rumoured to be completely bottomless (even by Irish standards). Now, his connections have always said he prefers some juice underfoot and he certainly looks to have a ‘soft ground action’, yet the ground he will encounter tomorrow will be unlike anything he has seen before. My major concern is that the elements will blunt his electric turn of foot and that when Jamie Spencer presses the button, he’ll be unable to pick up. If he handles the treacherous conditions, he’ll win. Sadly, that is too big an ‘if’ for me and I prefer the chances of the Aidan O’Brien trained MASTERCRAFTSMAN at around 5/2.
Our selection was under three lengths behind Delegator at Newmarket, but was running on really well at the death and didn’t have the smoothest of passages. In fact, he looks like he needs more than a mile, so the testing conditions play to his strengths. He won the Group One National Stakes at the track on heavy ground as a two-year-old and seems to have everything stacked in his favour. John Oxx saddles the unexposed Rayeni who looks interesting, but has to step up dramatically on what he has achieved so far, while Soul City and Recharge don’t look quite good enough.
The fillies get a chance to strut their stuff 24 hours later on Sunday in the Boylesports Irish 1000 Guineas and I like the chances of David Wachman’s AGAIN at 3/1 and Mick Channon’s LAHALEEB each-way at 10/1. The former won the Group One Moyglare Stud Stakes at the Curragh as a two-year-old and has by far the best form on offer here. I fancied Lahaleeb to run well in the English Guineas but the ground turned against her and she was all at sea and out the back. You can ignore that run and I expect her to be in the mix at a double figure price.
The Temple Stakes is the feature race on Haydock’s card tomorrow and sadly Hungarian superstar Overdose is not making the journey over. Henry Candy’s Amour Propre established himself as a potential star when bolting up at Newmarket last time, but he is not a guaranteed runner if the ground remains soft. BORDERLESCOTT has no ground worries and is a confident selection to go one better than 12 months ago.