Punchestown stages flat racing for the first time since 2002 this afternoon, the County Kildare track’s first meeting since mid-February.
And the O’Briens are likely to dominate the early two-year-old action, with Joseph’s Emphatic Answer, a promising sixth on her debut in a hot Cork maiden on debut, napped to land the opening fillies maiden.
A No Nay Never filly, the selection caught my eye when filling sixth spot behind Emaniya in Cork, separated from the winner by a clutch of fillies who have advertised the form, including Navan maiden winner April Showers and Divinely, winner of a Group 3 at the Curragh on her next start.
That debut effort suggested that Emphatic Answer should be capable of a maiden success. And, with improvement likely, she should be tough to beat today, with Aidan O’Brien’s newcomer Monday probably the biggest threat.
Boxed-in and unable to hit top gear until late on his debut in Killarney, when a close third to 85-rated Snowy Owl, the Aidan O’Brien-trained Hector De Maris has Joseph’s Liffey River, pipped on debut in Gowran Park, to beat in the colts’ maiden.
She’s Our Queen, winner of a Down Royal maiden, never saw daylight on her handicap debut in Leopardstown, when a close fifth to Lampetia, and makes plenty of appeal in the nine-furlong fillies handicap for Johnny Murtagh whose Champers Elysees justified favouritism in the Group 3 Fairy Bridge in Gowran Park yesterday en-route to a crack at the Group 1 Matron at Leopardstown.
Peter O’Hehir's tips for Punchestown
1.20 Emphatic Answer (Nap)
1.55 Fame And Acclaim
2.25 Hector De Maris
2.55 Aced It
3.25 Orchid Gardens
3.55 She’s Our Queen
4.25 Day Dreamin’
4.55 Drummer
