Fairyhouse Weekend Betting: The top Irish weekend action previewed by Wayne Bailey

005 Irish Racing / Wayne Bailey / 26 November 2009 / Leave a Comment

Following a week of heavy rain, the going is expected to be heavy at Fairyhouse this weekend.

“On all known form, Catch Me will have enough to win this for Edward O’Grady’s yard and is a fairly confident selection with the heavy ground expected to suit the seven-year-old.”

Cheltenham Supreme Novices' favourite Dunguib is back action in the Royal Bond Novice Hurdle, while Catch Me is attracting early support as he reverts back to sticks for the Hatton's Grace.

I'm not sure if the UK news media have picked up on it, but much of Ireland has been flooded this week with unprecedented levels of water flowing through some towns and numerous rivers bursting their banks. It seems a bit trivial to talk about racing fixtures with 1,500+ people displaced from their homes but somehow, most meetings in Ireland have managed to survive so fingers crossed for this weekend at Fairyhouse. The going is expected to be heavy but it's a cracking card, especially on Sunday which has no-less than three Grade ones scheduled.

I'm particularly looking forward to the Hatton's Grace - or to give it its full title The Bar One Racing Hatton´s Grace Hurdle on Sunday afternoon (2.05), where Catch Me goes back over the smaller obstacles following a recent win and then a fall over fences at Cork and Navan respectively. According to Tony Keenan's trends analysis, Catch Me is up against it in the Hatton's Grace as "Seven of the last 10 winners won their most recent start, with the three exceptions making the frame - so a good run last time is paramount."

But I'm willing to forgive his fall last-time-out as he's still leaning his trade over the larger obstacles and he looks like he'll need another couple of chases under the belt before he finds some confidence in that arena. But over sticks, this horse has been seriously impressive and early quotes of [4.5] or thereabouts to repeat last year's win look pretty generous.

The big danger comes in the guise of Noel Meade's Muirhead, but there's something I don't trust about this horse and he's one of those that won't seem to put his head in front when it matters. In fairness, the animals that have beaten him over the last couple of seasons include Solwhit, Punjabi, Brave Inca and Sublimity, so there's no real shame in his losses - but he's starting to become a talking horse and if he wants to live up to his billing, he has to stop settling for the places pretty soon.

Old hurdling veteran Hardy Eustace will also make an appearance but I'm starting to feel that Dessie Hughes should consider letting the twelve-year-old bow out gracefully in the near future. He's been a fantastic servant to connections over the years but going forward, it will be difficult to find decent races where he has a realistic chance of winning. That said, the dual Champion Hurdle-winner surprised us all last year and beat Sizing Europe and Jered in the Maplewood Developments Hurdle so I guess you never know and I wish him all the best.

But on all known form, Catch Me will have enough to win this for Edward O'Grady's yard and is a fairly confident selection with the heavy ground expected to suit the seven-year-old.

Earlier on, Dunguib should take the Bar One Racing Royal Bond Novice Hurdle with relative ease (1.00). The early Irish layers have chalked him up around [1.4] and that price looks about right. He went off as low as [1.17] last-time-out on Betfair and it was interesting to watch the in-running markets as he never traded above [1.2] throughout the race. Unfortunately, his superiority has frightened a number of good horses away and we are now left with a relatively small uncompetitive field - so we probably won't learn much about Dunguib's Cheltenham claims from this.

At such a short price, he'll probably find himself in a lot of doubles, trebles and Yankees over the weekend so fingers crossed he produces the goods for backers as he continues his march towards the Cotswolds.

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