Daily Racing Multiple: A strictly Superficial bet for Monday's Mares' clash at Punchestown

Elliott has two for the Mares' race, but the bigger priced runner is more appealing

Back Deeply Superficial @ 4.03/1 in the 13:40 at Punchestown

Belle The Lioness ran second yesterday behind Davy Russell's last-ever winner, and the market very much told the story. Liberty Maker for Russell was up front and the two rivals played cat and mouse a lot further behind, and Belle The Lioness has got a fair bit of ability considering her jumping was very poor. I was surprised she didn't trade shorter than her 8.27/1 price in-running though!

Blanketontheground did, and she hit 2.186/5 when making a sweeping move off the turn and looked to be in business. However, she ran all over the shop in the closing stages to cap a frustrating day. Russell signs off with no victory world tour, fitting of the man who I interviewed many years ago at the top of the Guinness Tower. A hard-as-nails jockey you'll ever likely to meet, but splendid too.

Monday's first bet is in the Mares' Listed 2m4f contest at 13:40, and Gordon Elliott may be double-handed with a short 5/4 favourite, but I do like the claims of his "second string" here with Deeply Superficial. I have tipped her in Monday's Daily Racing News column.

She impressed me with her jumping at Galway on debut in October, and that's quite a tricky track to negotiate with the tight turns, stiff climb and quick succession hurdles. She got a B+ from me for that run.

The 5yo mare had previously hacked up by 10L in a PTP, so it was understandable she was sold for a whopping 385K.

Her Galway win was comfortable at every single stage and handled the soft ground well which is in-keeping with her pedigree. Indeed, her family shows up a 3m3f winner, and with her lineage including Flemensfirth and Kayf Tara, this is a proper old-fashioned jumping pedigree and the step up to 2m4f should present little problem and I expect her to improve for the trip.

Her stablemate Harmonya Maker has winning form at the track and should make this a good test, but Deeply Superficial jumped well at speed on her first start and that bodes well with a potentially true-run gallop on the cards.

Come on feel the noise with Slade on debut

Back Slade Steel @ 3.259/4 in the 15:40 at Punchestown

I'll never not be tempted for a bumper race and bet, and while I am still searching for my usual ante-post Cheltenham Champion Bumper selection, I am hoping something decent comes out of the closing 15:40 at Punchestown.

Willie Mullins has the favourite Blizzard Of Oz at 5/6 and he introduced Black Hercules in this race back in 2013, but I tend to shy away from his runners in these sort of races at odds-on, and Henry De Bromhead has been relatively kind to us of late. His Slade Steel looks the bet for me at 9/4 for his debut.

Purchased for a relatively cheap 30,000 a store, he won his PTP last spring before going through the ring and some of the Telescope offspring have been selling well.

With a couple of 2m4f winners in his pedigree, this will be De Bromhead's second bumper runner of the season, so it's good to see him fairly prominent in the betting for what looks a good race. Now is the time of year we see the well bred jumpers come out, and De Bromhead shows a profit of nearly +24.00 backing his runners over the last five seasons at the track.