THE ANTEPOST ANGLE - DUBLIN RACING FESTIVAL

This weekend sees the return of the Dublin Racing Festival at Leopardstown. This is when we typically see the Irish heavyweight trainers put their Cheltenham Festival hopes on the line and this year’s renewal looks like being a cracking two days of racing.

There are two Grade One Novice Hurdles in which two Gordon Elliott runners have caught my eye.

It's high quality straight from the get-go, with proceedings kicking off with a 2m 6 furlong Grade One Novice Hurdle, a key trial for the Abert Bartlett at the Cheltenham festival. Current Albert Bartlett favourite THE YELLOW CLAY (NAP) looks a stand-out play with 8/1 widely available. The Gordon Elliot trained charge easily accounted for both Supasundae and Jasmin de Vaux in the Grade One Lawlors Hurdle last time out and is taken to confirm placings should they renew rivalries here. The Yellow Clay wasn’t stopping that day and should relish the extra two furlongs to cement his place at the top of the Albert Bartlett betting.

13:20 LEOPARDSTOWN (SATURDAY) - THE YELLOW CLAY

Sunday sees the running of the Grade One two mile novice hurdle, which should give us a good pointer towards the opening race at The Cheltenham Festival, the Supreme Novices Hurdle. It was hard not to be impressed by the way ROMEO COOLIO scooted clear in Grade One company last time out and the 6/1 available with Skybet looks too big not to be involved.  The Willie Mullins-trained Kopek Des Bordes is likely to give the selection the most to think about, but Romeo Coolio is taken to make the Gordon Elliott hand in the novice hurdle division look ultra strong for Cheltenham.

13:40 LEOPARDSTOWN (SUNDAY) - ROMEO COOLIO

written by Daryl Lay