Elliott Has Novice Vision At Dublin Racing Festival

Gigginstown’s maroon colours dominated the Dublin Racing Festival’s opening day with Apple’s Jade and Commander Of Fleet bagging Grade 1 honours and Ireland’s champion owners could be set for more of the same on day two.

It really does promise to be another fascinating day of action at the Foxrock venue and there’s every chance there will be a nice spread of winners throughout the afternoon but with three runners in the feature Gold Cup, Gigginstown’s blue cap may well be the one to follow.

Meade Is Taking The Right Road To With Respect
A field of 10 go to post for the Irish Gold Cup and although the Cheltenham Gold Cup favourite Presenting Percy isn’t here, it should still cause a reshuffle in the Cheltenham market.

Road To Respect endured a luckless run here at Christmas and was twice lucky not to end up on the ground but still finished well despite all that to finish third.

The eight-year-old was fourth in the Cheltenham Gold Cup last season and that was on ground slower than ideal and possibly just a shade further than ideal but he should put that right here.

The Christmas winner Kemboy doesn’t reappear and even connections of Monalee would have to fear a reversal of the Christmas form given Road To Respect’s horrid passage the last day.

Given how open the Gold Cup market is at the moment, it would be no surprise to see…

Road To Respect feature much more prominently in that by this evening.

Elliott Has Novice Vision
The Dublin Racing Festival has definitely been the host of the two best novice hurdles of the season so far with yesterday’s 2m6f contest producing a big field and a worthy winner in Commander Of Fleet, while today the 2m Chanelle Pharma Novice Hurdle has only a field of nine but none can be discounted easily.

Dancing On My Own could outrun his odds here for Henry de Bromhead and it wouldn’t be a surprise to see that horse attract some each-way attention but Vision D’honneur can book his spot in the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle.

The five-year-old was well fancied when running here at Christmas but only finished fourth on that occasion. A win since at Punchestown has meant this race is an obvious stepping stone to Cheltenham but Elliott can continue his Grade 1 winning spree with the horse who should benefit from the experience of now having two runs compared to when he met Klassical Dream here in December.

Ruby opting for Klassical Dream over Aramon must be a pointer for the Mullins team but…

Vision D’honneur is stuck with to reverse the form with Walsh’s mount.

Recommended Bets:
Road To Respect (9/4) – 3.35 Leopardstown
Vision D’honneur (9/4) – 1.50 Leopardstown

*Prices correct at time of publication.