Aidan O’Brien’s once-raced filly Madonna, a full-sister to Maybe, should be tough to beat in the two-year-old fillies maiden which opens today’s flat card in Thurles.
The daughter of Galileo shaped with plenty of promise when third to April Showers on her debut in Navan and, with plenty of improvement, she’s expected to win an event which Ballydoyle annexed with subsequent Irish 1,000 Guineas winner Peaceful last year.
Madonna, the mount of Seamus Heffernan, will probably have most to fear from Joseph O’Brien’s Emphatic Memories, very promising on debut in Cork and a solid third to New England Bay at Punchestown on her second start.
The Ballydoyle team might also strike with top-weight San Martino in the Thurles Nursery.
A wide-margin winner of a Killarney maiden, this fellow went down narrowly to Magnanimous in a premier nursery in Listowel, with one of today’s rivals Snowy Owl in fourth.
And sure to be ridden positively, the 92-rated colt should prove tough to pass.
The Jim Bolger-trained Legal Thriller, nabbed late by Han Solo in Cork recently and raised 3lb. on the back of that effort, makes plenty of appeal in the Moyne Handicap.
Shane Foley booted home a treble in Navan yesterday to join Colin Keane on the 75-winner mark in the title-race and has prospects on Kells in the one-mile maiden while Keane (scored on Alarm Call yesterday) might click on Dot Love’s Flindt in the two-mile handicap.
Peter O'Hehir's tips for Thurles
2.15 Madonna
2.45 San Martino
3.15 Kells
3.45 Legal Thriller (Nap)
4.15 Franno
4.45 Flindt
5.20 Hearts Are Trumps
