Flat Racing 20th March

[Trotter]

Sunday sees the Flat season underway in Ireland with a decent card at the Curragh and the first group race of the season plus the first look at the two year olds. Haven't picked anything out but noticed a few interesting things....... Fahey is sending one over for the first two year old race, you'd have to think the horse would be well forward for him to bother Several horses going who've been running here on the all weather, will the fitness advantage tell ?............this is not something I noticed last year, it appears to be a new development. Good prize money over there compared to the all weather here ! Lastly i remember from last year that Tommy Stack had his runners bouncing for the 'off' and won lots of races in the first few weeks..........might be worth keeping an eye out for his runners.

[Monterosso]

Re: Flat Racing 20th March :clap 4:35 Curragh - Money Trader - 2pts e/w @ 16/1 (Boylesports) Probably a little out of his dept here but I wouldn't be overly surprised to see him run a big race at a nice price. Money Trader isn't exactly consistent, but he has been heavily campaigned throughout his career, racing 14 times as a 2 year old and 11 times as a 3 year old. However, the best time to catch him could well be first time out, especially if last seasons effort is anything to go by. He ran on similarly soft ground at this course on the back of a 5 month absence. He ran a cracking second to Duchess Of Foxland, who ran that day off a mark 80, and has since progressed to win a Listed contest when rated 100 (also placed since at Group 3 level, twice). That was over 7 furlongs, which my selection saw out well and went on to score easily over a mile 2 starts later. He beat Mujaazef that day by 2 lengths, and he's a fairly useful animal. However, Money Trader paid for that win by going up 9lbs in weight and struggled for the rest of the season. He has since dropped back to just 1lb above his last winning mark and although this is a tough ask, he has conditions to suit, a good draw and could well be up to running above his current mark. A lot of it will depend on how trainer Jim Gorman has him for his first run of the season but the booking of Wayne Lordan looks a positive booking and he could well prove to be a big plus to this animal. Lordan is a very talented jockey and landed the penultimate running of this race, so hopefully he'll do so again. The horse himself has won over 5 furlongs (soft), 7 furlongs (soft) and a mile (good), so he's obviously got plenty of speed, stamina and toughness, as his trainer has said by stating "he`s definitely the toughest horse I`ve ever trained." Although he'd want to be considering he runs every other week. Whilst Money Trader's end of season form is nothing special, he should be one to catch in the first couple of months and if he doesn't win now, he'll be winning soon enough. His soft ground record has 2 wins, 1 second and 1 third from 7 runs. Conditions are ideal and he may just be up to causing a surprise, or at least grabbing one of the 4 places. 16/1 looks a nice price, but there's every chance that'll get bigger as he's not from a big yard nor one with many winners. Medium each-way stakes for me. 2 of the last 3 winners have come in priced at 20/1 & 33/1, so it's probably best to go for a bit of a long shot and avoid the market principles, with plenty having question marks.