Irish Jockey Championship: Fran Berry is fantastic value - so snap it up quickly!

Jockeys & Trainers / Wayne Bailey / 07 October 2008 / Leave a Comment

Bookmakers in Ireland have slashed Berry's price into [1.9], but he's still available on Betfair at [2.5]. Our man in Ireland believes the layers will be caught napping...

While it doesn't officially end until November, the British Flat Jockey Championship is pretty much done and dusted, and all credit to Ryan Moore for some fantastic wins throughout the season. However, the Irish Championship is still very much alive, and surely the [2.5] on offer for Fran Berry to win is way too long?

The championship ends with the Dundalk meeting of December 5th , and of course Berry still has the not-so-little matter of Johnny Murtagh and the Ballydoyle operation to contend with - but with the 'team tactics' ban kicking in this week Murtagh could lose valuable ground at a vital stage of the championship.

At the time of writing, there's just one win separating the pair with Murtagh just about on top with 73 wins, and Berry on 72. A very close third is three-time champion Pat Smullen; and with 71 winners, he's still a very live outsider at [3.5].

Winning the championship would be a first for Berry, and would finally make up for the disappointment of 2005 where he looked certain to win the trophy until disaster struck when Indian Rite broke a leg and Berry was seriously injured in the resulting fall.

Indeed, Berry would be following a family tradition and many readers will remember his father Frank; a ten time jumps champion. Starting out his career, Berry had some notable wins over sticks and fences and regularly ran under both codes, however in the early part of this century, he decided to concentrate solely on the flat and soon found himself as a top jockey in the John Oxx yard.

Oxx has continued to give him plenty of work, but he's also struck up a successful partnership with Jessica Harrington. Have a look back at some of the rides he gave Jumbajukiba this year (as tipped here of course!), and you'll see why [2.5] seems quite high.

All that said, only a fool would rule Murtagh out of the race just yet. It's been a few years since he won the Championship, but the four-time title holder has had the best year of his life, helped no end by becoming Aidan O'Brien's top jockey.

He's also been clocking up the wins for Ger Lyons and David Wachman too, and at [2.7] he's still in with a very real chance of winning. There's certainly no need for me to introduce Murtagh on these pages, but a quick look back at some of his Classic wins this year will show the type of horseman he is. O'Brien has the Irish Trainer Championship sewn up already, and while that stable's form has taken a (very) slight dip in the past few weeks, they are sure to fire out plenty more winners before the season is out with Murtagh riding many of those.

Pat Smullen has also won the championship four times (including last year), but has it all to do if he's going to defend his title. Dermot Weld has had a disappointing season (by his standards), and it's fair to say that the pool of potential winners at Smullen's disposal has been somewhat diminished this year. Having said that, he's never been afraid of a challenge, and won't go out without a fight.

Advice

As we've all seen before, a serious injury to a jockey can change everything in these markets, and with two months to go, betting here must come with a slight health warning. However barring any accidents, I believe it's going to be Berry's year and it's worth taking some of that [2.5] before the price comes in any further. Continuing with the cautious theme, I'll lay out if/when the price hits the [1.5] mark.