Go In At The Deep End With Pier At Ballinrobe

Javelin ran a similar sort of race yesterday as she did on her handicap debut. She broke well enough but lost her position at the midway point before staying on steadily again in the closing stages. She didn’t get the clearest of runs but she was never really going the pace to challenge and perhaps she will need another couple of furlongs in due course.
 

Colla Pier gets her ground at Ballinrobe.

I am going to take a chance on one at tasty odds this evening at Ballinrobe and I think Colla Pier looks far too big a price in the 20f handicap at 6.30. This 9yo daughter of Hawk Wing has been running respectably on flat over inadequate trips or on unsuitable ground, her best recent run coming on her sole start at her optimum flat trip of 2 miles at Dundalk when 3rd over 16f back in April.

She was never going to be competitive on her next start in a Listed race at Gowran on bottomless ground as this mare is at her best when she can hear her hooves rattle. She ran a nice enough race last time at Navan over 13f on quick ground when beaten just over 5L, doing all her best work at the finish.

Those five flat runs since returning from her winter break should have put her spot on for her return to hurdling and the ground has come right for her at Ballinrobe. Okay, she was pulled up on her last start over timber at Bellewstown back in July, but the 16.5f trip was never likely to suit. She had previously won a beginner’s chase in good style at Down Royal (20f gd) and she has run plenty of decent races in Graded and Listed company during her career.

Her last win over timber came at Plumpton back in October 2016 when she beat Royal Irish Hussar comfortably off a mark of 126 (16f gd/fm). She has mainly mixed chasing with the flat since then, but the fact that her trainer David Dunne thought she was good enough to take to the USA for a crack at a 19f Grade 1 handicap hurdle last August suggests that she still possesses plenty of ability over the smaller obstacles.

Unfortunately, she was a late withdrawal that day at Saratoga, and this is the first time she has been entered over hurdles since. She won’t lack for fitness with those runs on the flat behind her and she races off a pound lower than her last winning hurdle mark. Robbie Dunne has travelled across the pond to take the ride and I think she looks well overpriced at odds of 25/1.

STEVOS’ SELECTION: 6.30 BALLINROBE-COLLA PIER E/W @ 25/1