Joseph O'Brien: Gracchus has strong claims to be a Balme at Navan

Navan

Could seize his chance to make hay again

12:00 - Banbridge

Banbridge made hay earlier this season, winning a bumper and two races over hurdles. I thought he ran quite well in a very competitive novices' handicap hurdle at Leopardstown's Christmas meeting last time, as he met with a fair bit of trouble in running after the second-last flight and ran on well up the run-in.

He's better than that run suggests and this is less competitive company. He would probably prefer a longer trip than this, but we'll let him take his chance as it looks a nice class of race for him at this stage of his career.]

Promising start points to another big run

13:05 - Gracchus De Balme

Gracchus De Balme is a winning point-to-pointer that made a promising start for us over hurdles last month, finishing third to Whatdeawant. He made the running that day and was still in the mix until getting tired on the run-in. He should come on from that run, which was his first outing since February.

His jumping was good there, so hopefully we get a repeat of that here. He looks to have strong form claims and will hopefully run a big race.