Wayne Bailey / 30 July 2009 Free Bet

Sesenta tops the weights and she is a very admirable filly, but it is a big ask to win this off a rating of 94. Due to race conditions, she must actually give weight to Aliyfa, who is marked 103.
Another three-year-old, Casual, benefits from the weight-for-age allowances and she is a tentative pick. What exactly she achieved in winning a four-runner Killarney race is questionable, but the handicapper saw fit as a consequence to reassess her. Though she is now rated 90, she only carries eight stone and eight pounds and it was hard not to be taken by her attitude in Killarney.
The fact that she is trained by Dermot Weld is obviously a massive plus as well and she should go close.

The opening handicap hurdle for amateur riders is quite an interesting contest for the grade and Francis Du Mesnil is a hopeful choice. Rated 96, he ran very well over fences last time off 95 and is obviously in good heart. The worry is that he finds so little off the bridle; with that and the hill in mind, a pre-race in-running lay at around 2.5 would be advisable for his backers. He has the ability to run very well.
Media Queen has been very well-campaigned by Donie Hassett, but the drop back to two miles and a quarter is probably a negative for her. She is a former point-to-point winner and her stamina was key to her most recent win.

It hardly says much for the Auction Maiden that the 65-rated filly Cheval Rouge is actually tissue favourite in places. David Marnane complicates matters by booking John Murtagh to ride one of his pair, both of which are liable to be prominent in the ring.
Danny Mullins is an interesting booking for Lil Ella and she is the pick at a nice price. Though a Christy Roche-trained flat maiden winner would be very rare, she was beaten just over six lengths on her debut behind Famous Warrior and one imagines that she will progress appreciably from that. This contest will not take much winning and Mullins - who partnered the winner 12 months ago of this race - rides Galway very well.

Age does not favour many of the runners in the Handicap Chase, with six of them ten or older. Among that sextet is Reisk Superman, a winner at the festival 12 months ago and certainly a gelding that will appreciate the drying conditions. However, he is a bit of a bridle merchant, if not as irresolute as the frustrating Sanglote. The last named's head carriage in a bumper early on in his career in Ballybrit was something that stuck with me and has stuck with him as well.
Plaisir D'Estruval was desperately disappointing last time but still appeals as being quite well-handicapped and he appeals off nine stone ten, with Paddy Flood riding presumably due to Davy Russell not being able to do the weight. He looked quite classy when hacking up earlier in the year in Down Royal and the money that has come for him in his races since implies that connections also feel that he may have something in hand.

Sublime Talent, meanwhile, will hardly live up to his name altogether but he should win the 12-furlong maiden. Backers of 1-7 favourite Yankee Doodle were given a real fright in Wexford when Sublime Talent joined him around three furlongs out and the subsequent high-class form displayed by the grey makes that effort read quite well. Viceroy Of India is not progressive and Chebona Bula may offer most resistance to the jolly.

Another likely Rosewell-trained favourite is Reflected Image in the extended mile handicap and he remains on the same mark after winning a fairly ordinary Wexford maiden. Further down the weights, Harry Rogers' Polly Ella could be the answer. She ran a cracker on her penultimate run to chase home the very well-handicapped Napa Starr, and off the same mark here she has plenty going for her.

Weld's Universal Truth will, for many, be the day's banker and he is very hard to get away from in the finale. Bahrain Storm will hardly run so the price will be even shorter than forecast, while it is hard to know what to make of De Valira at this stage but he may well struggle to win another race.
The main danger may prove to be Baracas, who is four pounds better off than he was when second to the Weld hotpot at Limerick, but Universal Truth was value for more than the actual winning margin.