Punchestown Tips: Manisanda to build on promising debut on day two

Strong form on debut against the boys

Punchestown 19:35: Manisanda 1pt e/w 8/1

Grangee is a short-priced favourite in the Grade 3 mares bumper that closes the card. She narrowly won a Grade 2 bumper at Leopardstown and ran fairly well to finish sixth in the Champion Bumper at Cheltenham. However, I'm not sure her form is as superior to her rivals as the market suggests and a once-raced rival looks an appealing alternative.

Manisandra made her debut at Fairyhouse earlier this month and took on some strong opposition. Letsbeclearaboutit was the odds on favourite having chased home Sir Gerhard and Kilcruit on his previous two starts and there were another four last time out winners in the field. In a well-run race, Manisandra raced on the outside about three quarters of the way down the field through the first half of the race and showed the occasional sign of greenness. Just before moving into the home straight, she made headway to be around three lengths behind the leader in fourth. Pushed along early in the straight, she was initially outpaced by the leading pair before staying on well to only be beaten four lengths in third.

That was a promising debut against horses that had previously shown a very good level of form in bumpers. While that may still be a little short of what Grangee achieved at Cheltenham, I think she doesn't have as much to find as the market suggests and I think her level of form entitles her to be second favourite in this race rather than the fourth.

A slight worry would be if this ends up being slowly run as she didn't look to have a particularly good turn of foot but it may also have been inexperience that caused her to not go with the front pair when the pace quickened early in the straight.

While most of her rivals look to have shown exactly what they're capable of achieving in bumpers, I think that's not the case with Manisanda and any 5/1 or bigger appeals.