Dublin Racing Festival: Donn McClean best bets

Racing betting tips: Saturday, February 6

1.05 Leopardstown – Cape Gentleman at 7/1

3.15 Leopardstown – Abacadabras at 8/1

3.50 Leopardstown – Eclair De Beaufeu at 40/1 (each-way)

It is only three years since the Dublin Racing Festival came into being in its current guise. The races were there all right, but they were scattered across disparate weekends, three meetings spread across five or six weeks. It was only in 2018 that they were all brought together and presented in one weekend of top class National Hunt racing, and perfectly positioned at the mid-point in the run between Christmas and Cheltenham.

And now look. Fifteen high-class races shoe-horned into two days, and the intensity of that. Eight Grade 1s and deep, deep quality throughout. Honeysuckle is the star among stars today, back to try to win her second Chanelle Pharma Irish Champion Hurdle. She will be in good company if she pulls it off: only Istabraq and Hurricane Fly have won back-to-back renewals of the Irish Champion Hurdle since the turn of the millennium.

There is nothing not to like about Honeysuckle. Henry de Bromhead’s mare has raced 10 times, once in a point-to-point and nine times over hurdles, and she has won 10 times. She has won an Irish Champion Hurdle, a David Nicholson Mares’ Hurdle and two Hatton’s Grace Hurdles. She has never been beaten and, as such, we don’t really know how good she is. We don’t know where the ceiling of her ability lies. She is great for racing and, in Rachael Blackmore, she has found the perfect partner.

Kenny Alexander’s mare faces the toughest test of her career today though, she will probably have to put up a career-best to win it, and she will be competing over a distance that is probably short of her optimum. It will be fantastic if she wins but, from a betting perspective, it may pay to look beyond her today.

Sharjah is a top class hurdler. Winner of the Galway Hurdle in 2018 and second in last year’s Champion Hurdle, he was impressive in winning the Grade 1 Matheson Hurdle at Leopardstown’s Christmas Festival.

Strange thing about Sharjah though. He is dynamite at Leoparstown at Christmas, but he seems to struggle to be as good in February. When he won the Matheson Hurdle this season, he was winning the race for the third time on the trot, and he would have won the Grade 1 novices’ hurdle at the Christmas Festival in 2017 had he not come down at the final flight.

By contrast, he has run twice at the Dublin Racing Festival, and he has come up short on both occasions. Seventh behind Samcro in the Deloitte Hurdle in 2018, sixth behind Honeysuckle in the Irish Champion Hurdle last year. It may be down to happenstance, he may blow that notion out of the water today, but it is still a niggle in the back of your mind.

Abacadabras has run just once at the Dublin Racing Festival. Inexplicably, he ran through the rail inside the final furlong when he was probably going to finish a close-up second behind Envoi Allen in the Grade 2 bumper there in 2019.

He hasn’t repeated those exploits since, thankfully, and he has morphed from a very good bumper horse into a top class hurdler. Winner of the Grade 1 Future Champions Novice Hurdle at Leopardstown’s Christmas Festival last season, he ran a massive race to finish second to Shiskhin in the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle at Cheltenham in March, going down by just a head with the pair of them pulling 11 lengths clear of their rivals.

He was beaten by Aspire Tower at Down Royal on his debut this season, but he stepped forward from that next time in winning the Grade 1 Morgiana Hurdle at Punchestown. He wasn’t overly impressive in beating Saint Roi by a neck, and Saint Roi didn’t have a good run through the race, but Gordon Elliott’s horse had to go to the front earlier than ideal that day.

You have to forgive him a poor run in the Matheson Hurdle at Leopardstown at Christmas, but you easily can, as he scoped poorly after the race. He is probably going to have to put up a career-best if he is going to win today, but he is a second-season hurdler who still has scope for progression, and he could out-run his odds by a fair way.

His stable companion Eclair De Beaufeu might be worth chancing too at a big price in the Ladbrokes Hurdle. The Gigginstown House horse won the Matheson Handicap Chase at this meeting last year off a handicap rating of 140, and he followed up by running a big race in the Grand Annual at Cheltenham to chase home his stable companion Chosen Mate.

A faller at the final fence in the Grade 2 Fortria Chase at Navan on his debut this season, he returned to hurdles next time for a valuable two-mile handicap hurdle at Fairyhouse on Hatton’s Grace Hurdle day, and he was there with a real chance when he came down at the second last flight.

He was a bit sticky over his obstacles through the early part of that race, but that was understandable, given that it was his first run over hurdles in over a year and a half. He warmed to his task though, and he had made nice progress to move into second place before his departure at the second last flight. He may not have beaten the winner Advanced Virgo, but he may have run him close. He meets that rival on 10lb better terms today, and he is almost four times his price.

Gordon Elliott’s horse disappointed in the handicap hurdle that Master McShee won at the Christmas Festival, but a lot of the Gordon Elliott horses under-performed over Christmas and, at the price, you can allow him that. He may not be as good over hurdles as he is over fences, but his hurdles mark is 18lb lower than his chase mark, so that gives him plenty of leeway. Fourth in this race in 2019 off a 5lb lower mark, we know that he goes well at the track, and Jordan Gainford takes off a valuable 7lb.

The days kicks off with a cracking contest in the Grade 1 Nathanial Lacy & Partners Solicitors Novices’ Hurdle.

Willie Mullins could hold the key here – that could be a theme of the weekend – as he fields four of the 13 runners, including the two horses at the head of the market in Gaillard Du Mesnil and Stattler. It is a fascinating race, which pits seven last-time-out winners against each other, but Cape Gentleman could be the value.

A winner over a mile and six furlongs on the flat in France for Nicolas Clement, the Champs Elysees gelding ran well to finish second to Mt Leinster in a qualified riders’ race at the Listowel Festival in September on his debut for Emmet Mullins, and he stepped forward from that next time when he won the Irish Cesarewitch.

He was impressive in winning that day. He travelled like the most likely winner from a fair way out, and he picked up nicely when Ronan Whelan asked him to, winning with more in hand that the two-length winning margin. And the third horse, De Name Escapes Me, came out and won the November Handicap at Naas next time.

He was impressive too in winning his maiden hurdle over two and a half miles on his hurdling bow at Punchestown in December. His jumping was very good for a debutant, he moved to the front on the run to the final flight, and he won easily.

He is going to have to step forward again if he is going to win today, but there is every chance that he will. Rated 100 on the flat, he is a classy performer who is lightly raced, who handles soft ground well and who jumped well on his debut. As an Irish Cesarewitch winner, the step up to two miles and six furlongs over hurdles should be a positive, and he could run a big race.

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