The Betway ambassador and Cheltenham festival top jockey discusses his three rides on Saturday ahead of a busy weekend at Fairyhouse.
The next ten days or so are a very busy time for us, pretty much going straight from the Irish National at Fairyhouse over to Aintree for the English equivalent. It’s an exciting time though, and although we might not quite have the numbers heading to Liverpool that we had in recent years, they all seem in good order.
We do have Fairyhouse to concentrate on first, and it really is a great few days up there. It’s a very fair track, Fairyhouse, and you don’t get too many hard-luck stories, so the best horse on the day usually wins. It’s a big, wide galloping track, and there is a stiff-ish finish, but you can pretty much win from anywhere, so it’s quite a straightforward track to ride as a jockey.
I have three decent chances there on Saturday, so it would be nice to start the weekend off with a winner or two!
Petit Secret is my first ride of the weekend in the Maiden Hurdle (15:50), and he’s entitled to take a big step forward from that run at Leopardstown last month. Prior to that, he was last seen here in 2023, winning a bumper, with Bleu De Vassy and Ma Shantou in behind, who have both made up into Grade 1 performers since, so the form of that race could hardly be working out any better. Petit Secret has obviously had his fair share of issues since then, but he’s been shaping at home as if he retains plenty of that ability, and despite doing plenty wrong the last day, he shaped with a lot of promise on his first start for two and a half years. He was entitled to get tired towards the end of the race, but there were plenty of positives to take from it, and I think he’ll run a big race with that run under his belt.
Fillyoureye looks an interesting contender on his first start in a handicap (16:25), and although it’s a very competitive race, he’s a horse with plenty of potential. We were disappointed to get beat by Zanoosh a few starts ago when she was rated just 112, but she’s rated in the 130’s now, so maybe that’s a better piece of form than we thought at the time. Fillyoureye starts life off in handicaps off 125, and that might be a workable mark as he just seems to be putting it all together, and I think going up in trip of late has really been the making of him. He’s versatile ground-wise, he stays well, and he’s seemingly improving, so I’m not saying he’s thrown in off this mark, but there definitely could be some juice in it if he keeps going the right way.
I wouldn’t mind another go on Karbau in the County Hurdle if I’m honest, but I’ll settle for another go in the Rybo Handicap Hurdle (17:00) here for €100,000. I was just too far back the last day at Cheltenham, and they didn’t go hard enough in front, and although he stayed on strongly, he probably just had too much to do in what turned out to be a bit of a messy race. I know the ground was given soft at Cheltenham that day, but it was nowhere near soft, and I’d say it was probably just on the quick side for Karbau to be seen to best effect. I know we have to give plenty of weight away here, and it won’t be easy, but we are top weight for a reason, and I think he’s the best horse in the race.
Murcia would be a lot better than she showed in the County, and if you forgive her that run, then she’d have a big chance in this race too. Danny (Mullins) was in a similar position to me on her at one point, and I thought she’d be staying on with me, but she didn’t, and that was disappointing. She’s a mare with plenty of ability, though, and if you are the forgiving type, you could easily discount that run at Cheltenham on the last day as it was just a bit of a funny race.
Visit Betway’s horse racing betting page.
