Dundalk Friday Tips: Back Joseph O'Brien to be amongst the winners

Mark Milligan
01 December 2022
3:30 min read

Mark Milligan has a pair of selections at Dundalk on Friday evening

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Mark Milligan is back to look at Friday's Dundalk card and thinks Joseph O'Brien is set to have a good night...

O'Brien sends strong team to Dundalk
Federal to follow up recent win
Well-bred newcomer poised to strike

Joseph O'Brien could be set for a good night at Dundalk on Friday and he goes into the feature 1m handicap at 18:00 three-handed, with Federal and Yerwanthere by far the most interesting of his trio.

Yerwanthere is making her first start for the O'Brien yard having won her only outing to date for the Patrick Foley yard at Leopardstown in early summer.

She's undoubtedly brimming with potential, particularly as she's now joined one of the top stables around, but I wonder if this level of competition might be just a bit too much for her at this stage of her career.

Yerwanthere is definitely one to keep an eye on for the future, but I'll be siding with Federal here, who is still relatively unexposed himself and took the highly competitive Irish Cambridgeshire at the Curragh last time on just his fourth start.

The abiding memory from that Cambridgeshire win is just how well Federal travel throughout the race, his high cruising speed a trait that should stand him in good stead in a race like this around Dundalk's all-weather track.

There's surely more to come from this one and I'm hoping he can follow up that success off just a 4lb higher mark than last time.

Away from the O'Brien team, Pierre Lapin may be the one to fare best of the rest.

He was a C&D winner on his penultimate start and then simply ran too freely when only fifth last time. He'll need to settle better this time but has Ronan Whelan taking over in the saddle from a 7lb claimer, which should help his cause.

Just An Hour to make winning bow

The 1m maiden at 17:30 features several who have already run to a fair level of form, most notably Man Of Eden, who will be making his fifth career start and boasts an official rating of 84.

That sort of level would usually be enough to win most all-weather maidens at this time of year, the caveat being if there isn't something either unexposed or unraced in the field that could be above average.

I'm hoping that there is an above-average newcomer in here in the shape of Joseph O'Brien's Just An Hour, who's sired by US Triple Crown winner Justify - a sire who's made a fantastic start with his juveniles, particularly in America.

This one fetched 450,000 guineas at the sales so there are clearly plenty of expectations there and he could well be a lot better than most newcomers that debut at this time of year.

The market should prove an invaluable guide to his chances, but I think there's more than enough in his pedigree - and the fact he's debuting for a top stable - to suggest he'll be well up to getting off the mark at the first time of asking.

Mark's UK/Ire P&L

Staked: 298 Returns: 361.21 P/L: +63.21

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