Smullen Booking Significant At Limerick

On the eve of the Punchestown Festival we have a Guineas trial at Newbury to get stuck into and after a good week for Frankel, another of his three-year-old crop could make a mark on Saturday.

Dream Result In Greenham
A 10-strong field will go to post for the Group 3 Greenham Stakes shortly after 3pm on Saturday and no matter where you look, there isn’t much in the betting between the Godolphin duo of Barney Roy and Dream Castle. But it’s the latter that is picked to score.

Barney Roy was a maiden winner at the back end of last season for Richard Hannon and Hannon is certainly renowned for having his team ready for action in the early part of the season, but…

Dream Castle made a winning debut three weeks ago at the opening Doncaster meeting and that looked an impressive performance.

He was sent off the odds-on favourite for what was probably a modest looking maiden but it was the manner in which he went about his business that day that impressed and with more improvement expected, Dream Castle can continue his progression by taking this trial.

Aidan O’Brien was on the mark with his first British runner of the season in midweek but War Decree disappointed on Thursday and War Secretary is an interesting runner having won a decent Dundalk race last time.

Smullen And Shanahan To Combine At Limerick
Pat Shanahan and Pat Smullen are both Classic-winning jockeys for Dermot Weld but Shanahan has since joined the training ranks and his booking of Smullen for Warp Factor at Limerick could be significant.

The four-year-old has only won one of his 16 career starts but he has been placed in the money nine times so far and while the mile could be just a shade sharp for him on Saturday, he is given the nod to oblige.

A hurdling campaign saw him put in some creditable efforts on both sides of the Irish Sea.

If he can get away with the drop back in trip, he should improve for the better ground than he experienced on the level at Cork earlier in the month. He’s a horse that may have a big pot in him under both codes during the summer months.

Murtagh’s A True Favourite
Johnny Murtagh enjoyed his best ever season as a trainer last year with True Valour just missing out on adding to his tally when going down by a short head to Lancaster Bomber in a maiden back in August.

The Qatar Racing-owned son of Kodiac was unlucky to come up against some decent types in his three maiden outings but he looks like being a worthy favourite for the opening race at Limerick and at the fourth time of asking can open his account for the Curragh-based trainer.

Murtagh’s horses have been running well this month and with a couple of winners already on the board, this looks a tailor-made opportunity for another.

Recommended Bets:
True Valour (10/11) – 1.15 Limerick
Warp Factor (14/1) – 2.50 Limerick
Dream Castle (3/1) – 3.05 Newbury

*Prices correct at time of publication.