Elzaa To Relish Return To Gowran

Staff College was withdrawn by Henry Spiller on account of the ground at Newmarket, and it seems he is biding his time for a sounder surface. He holds another couple of entries for this week, so keep an eye out for him. If he repeats the form of that 2yo run in France on decent ground he will be well up to making a big impact off his opening mark of 80.

Socks Madden can claim 5lb and it could be crucial.

I am off to Gowran tomorrow for their twilight card and hopefully the rain steers clear. There are showers forecast but it is unlikely that conditions will soften too much. The one I am interested in won’t give a monkeys what the weather does, and I think Elzaa looks way overpriced in the 20.30 for Adrian McAllister and Socks Madden.

This 3yo filly showed little in four starts last season as a 2yo, but she has displayed a fair bit of potential on two of her last four starts this season. The first glimmer of ability came when she was 3rd at Gowran back in April off a mark of 51 on handicap debut for her former handler Lady Jane Gillespie, who sadly passed away after a brave battle with a prolonged illness earlier this year.

Elzaa is now in the care of another Northern Ireland based trainer, Adrian McAllister. This is the Antrim based handler’s first season and he has already sent out a winner from just 7 runners. He has his string in good form at the moment, and he has rattled the cross bar with his last two runners. Elzaa was well beaten for him on her first run in a 10f Curragh maiden, but she showed a whole lot more last time back in handicap company at Leopardstown.

She was outpaced early on in that 8f good to firm ground contest off a mark of 53, but she stayed on strongly in the last couple of furlongs behind the well treated winner. She just missed out on a place for Tom Madden who was riding for the first time, and he was unable to claim any weight in that apprentice race. Elzaa has been dropped to 52 after that effort and with Madden able to claim 5lb this evening she is effectively 6lb lower than when 4th at Leopardstown.

She could have been drawn a lot worse than stall 7 tonight and in any case, she will probably be held up for a late run so as long as she doesn’t fall out of the stalls she should be fine. The first time cheek-pieces should help sharpen her concentration and on the evidence of her two handicap runs the step up to 9.5f is another cause for optimism. She has course form, she is versatile regarding ground and she has proven she can be competitive off her current mark. Elzaa is well overpriced at odds of 16/1 and she is a confident each way selection.

STEVOS’ SELECTION: 20.30-ELZAA E/W @ 16/1