Tony Keenan looks ahead to the racing from Navan and has a selection in one of the many handicaps on the card.
Irish racing tips: Sunday December 15
1pt win Dont Go Yet in 1.45 Navan at 7/1 (bet365) - 6/1 general also fine
Navan presents an unusual Sunday card this afternoon, with six mid-grade handicaps split across the two disciplines over the three standard trips, along with a Listed bumper that has produced some high-class winners in the past.
The Irish Stallion Farms EBF Future Champions Bumper at 3.25 is predictably the classiest race on the card but presents punters with a puzzle as the current field may not be the one that goes to post, the expectation not all of the Gordon Elliott runners will take part based on what has happened in other good weekend races lately.
The handicaps might prove more fruitful anyway with DONT GO YET the selection in the Irish Stallion Farms EBF Handicap Chase at 1.45.
Don't Go Yet looked like he might be handicapped to win a race like this when finishing third behind Solness (now rated 15lbs higher) in the Listed handicap chase at the Fairyhouse Winter Festival last December, looking to make his move sooner than ideal when hitting the front two out and passed before the last.
He went back for that Fairyhouse race again this year off the same mark, his only other chase run in between a non-staying sixth in the Tim Duggan at Limerick, and shaped similarly, running a few races in one; going forward early another and getting into a mini-pace battle. The pair pressed on again after halfway but still able to hit the front turning in and lead over the last, only to be passed by four rivals ridden with more restraint late.
His jumping last time was ordinary, his mistakes coming at crucial times too, but better can be expected now as it was his first chase run in 11 months and should sharpen him up, while both those Fairyhouse races were over 2m1f whereas today’s contest is over the bare two miles which should suit, and he also drops from a black-type handicap to a 0-123 at a track he has previously won over.
Carl Millar taking five pounds off looks a positive and while both Gavin Cromwell runners, Money Heist and Midnight It Is, could have more races in them, they are returning from 11 months off the track, things presumably not have gone smoothly in the second half of last season.
In the handicap hurdles, Away To Milan has good claims in the 12.35 over two and a half miles if this doesn’t come too soon after a big run returning from an absence last month. He has done well since going handicapping – his figures in those races reading: 54123 – and looked to make his move a little sooner than ideal last time at Punchestown, being the first of the main group to hit the front behind a few tearaways before being headed on the run-in.
Crossing The Bar is yet to win in three starts for Cian Collins since arriving from Neil Mulholland but has shaped well in each of those runs and the 3m1f trip of the Irish Stallion Farms EBF Handicap Hurdle at 1.10 should suit him well as he has looked strong stayer thus far.
His runs so far for Collins have come at tight tracks and this galloping circuit might suit better while he looked disadvantaged by taking the inside route at Sligo on his penultimate start when fourth, the three to beat him going much wider on what was fresher ground by that stage of the card.
He ran over fences last time behind a horse that is well fancied for a race later on the card while Danny Gilligan has a decent linkup with Collines, the pair six winners and 14 places together from 44 total runners, for a small level-stakes profit of four points and an actual over expected of +1.03.
Preview posted at 0844 GMT on 15/12/24
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