Drop In Trip And Weight Can See De Bromhead’s Niccolai Oblige

There are two Irish meetings to get stuck into on St Patrick’s Day and Cheltenham Festival winning trainer Henry de Bromhead is responsible for a 16/1 shot who could make the Bank Holiday weekend for punters.

Drop In Trip And Weight Can See Niccolai Oblige
Henry de Bromhead has been training for the Schuster family who have got into racehorse ownership to channel the love of the sport held by Niccolai before he was tragically killed in the Berkley disaster of 2015 and there was some memorable scenes when Ellie Mac gave them a Leopardstown winner.

Ellie Mac was 50/1 when winning that day and while this is a smaller stage and a smaller price, the horse called Niccolai can give the family something to celebrate again.

The five-year-old caught the eye just a week ago when she made her handicap debut at Gowran Park and travelled strongly in the front rank before fading out of contention late on.

That was over two and a half miles so with that experience under her belt and a drop in trip, Niccolai was surprisingly overpriced at 12/1 last night.

Claregate Street is the likely favourite but must carry 10lbs more than when running last time out and finishing second for Eoin Griffin.

Rachael Blackmore is worth her weight in gold at the moment but she is in Limerick today and that allows Daniel Holden to take 7lbs off. That leaves Niccolai running off a rating of 88 if you factor in the claim and just 10st6lbs and…

it would be a surprise if she can’t be very competitive here.

City Island Crew To Land Major Spoils
Martin Brassil and Mark Walsh teamed up for big race success at Cheltenham during the week and they can land the feature race at Wexford today with Vent De La Cote.

Just nine runners have lined up for the Veterans Chase which carries a massive prize pool of €40,000.

The 2m4f trip might not be ideal for most of the veteran chasers lining up this season but it’s extraordinary that more didn’t opt to have a go for such a big pot.

Top weight Goulane Chosen certainly has the form to be competitive again but Vent De La Cote carries 19lbs less and that is a big pull at the weights in testing ground.

It was similar ground when this horse caused a 25/1 shock to win the Listowel Harvest Festival and although we haven’t seen him since, his performance that day beating Great Trango would suggest he can win a Veterans Chase.

Undressed has shown little since joining Willie Mullins and looks a terrible price at 3/1 and many of these have been failing to show good form lately so if close to being spot on fitness wise Vent De La Cote should take beating.

Recommended Bets:
Niccolai (12/1) – 2.55 Wexford
Vent De La Cote (3/1) – 4.00 Wexford

*Prices correct at time of publication.