It was a tough day on Saturday for a couple of reasons. Compton’s Finale ran another cracking race at Navan, but he just came up short in 3rd. He has a great temperament and he obviously has ability, so hopefully his turn comes soon. His form so far looks rock solid. Donjuan Triumphant ran a massive race for us in the Sprint Cup, but he stayed on too late and could only manage 4th. It is always a heartbreaker when an each way bet at a big price finishes one place out of the money, but at least he was thereabouts.
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| Rory Cleary usually gets a good tune out of Beach Wedding. |
The Listowel Harvest Festival started on Sunday with a National Hunt card but I didn’t have a bet. It is a full card of flat action on Monday and I like the look of one at a massive price in the 9f Listed race at 3.20. Beach Wedding, a 3yo daughter of Footstepsinthesand, has improved massively this season and I am amazed that she can be backed at odds of 50/1 with a couple of firms. She has been far from disgraced on her last two appearances in pattern company and she hasn’t got a whole lot to find with the principals.
This filly won two handicaps on the bounce earlier this season, off 79 at Gowran on soft/heavy over a mile and then on good to firm off 82 at Leopardstown over two furlongs further. Her next couple of starts in handicap company weren’t so good, but she was given a 6 week break after the first of those, and it may well have been that she needed the second one from a fitness perspective at Galway on her return.
Johnny Murtagh wasted no time in stepping Beach Wedding up in class and she was far from disgraced when 5th at 40/1 in a Listed heat at Gowran (9.5f gd/fm). She was only 3.75L behind the winner Snowy Winter and Hence, who was beaten a nose in 2nd. Curly was 1.5L in front of Beach Wedding in 4th and considering that Beach Wedding was badly hampered at the furlong pole, she theoretically could have finished a lot closer to both those horses.
She closed the gap to Hence to just over 2L on her next outing in a Group 3 at the Curragh (9f gd/yld) and she was only half a length behind Snowy Winter. Once again Rory Cleary had to switch a couple of times between the 2f and 1f poles and it looked to me like she finished with something in the tank. Her trainer must think so too and I don’t blame him for persisting with her at this level as she is certainly talented enough to pick up some black type.
Beach Wedding has 2L to find with Hence and less to find with Curly, yet those two horses are priced up at just 9/2 and 7/1 respectively. Over this trip the draw isn’t massively important at Listowel, so I am not too worried about her starting position in stall 10. Johnny Murtagh has been having an excellent season and he continues in fine form. He has had three winners in the last fortnight and Rory Cleary is riding with confidence too. He gets on well with this filly and at odds of 50/1 I think she is well worth chancing each way for small stakes.
STEVOS’ SELECTION: 3.20 LISTOWEL-BEACH WEDDING E/W @ 50/1
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