Third in the race last year, Laughifuwant has rock-solid claims for trainer Gerry Keane in the listed Knockaire Stakes at Leopardstown.
The five-year-old has been relatively lightly-raced, has proven in recent starts he’s as good, if not better than ever and, suited by some juice in the ground, he should prove tough to beat under Gary Carroll, deputising for Colin Keane, who is on duty for Ger Lyons and Aidan O’Brien on Champions Day in Ascot.
Winner of the Ahonoora Handicap in Galway last year, he went on to finish in the frame twice at listed level, including a third to Psychedelic Funk in this race.
He made his belated 2020 debut in the Ahonoora and, having made most of the running had to settle for eighth spot –beaten less than three lengths behind Current Option.
But Laughifuwant stepped forward from that run to land the Irish Cambridgeshire, off a mark of 100, on his next start beating Quizical and earning a return to stakes company in the Group 3 Concorde at Tipperary.
And he ran a blinder there, racing prominently and going down fighting by just a short-head to old rival Current Option.
Laughifuwant gets the vote over Ger O’Leary’s convincing Tipperary winner Real Force, a progressive three-year-old, the Jessica Harrington-trained Free Solo, outpointed by Keats in Cork, and the unexposed Irish Admiral, successful on his debut in Dundalk.
The Aidan O’Brien-trained Ontario, runner-up to New Mandate in the Group 2 Royal Lodge in Newmarket on his penultimate start, is the highest-rated of the nine contenders for the Group 3 Killavullan 2-Y-0 Stakes.
But the Ballydoyle colt was disappointing when turned over by Sweet Gardenia in a listed event in Tipperary last time and needs to return to his best here.
I’ll take a chance with Jim Bolger’s Poetic Flare, winner of the opening two-year-old race of the season at Naas in March and considered a live Coventry candidate for Royal Ascot.
But the son of Dawn Approach wasn’t seen again until recently, when thrown in at the deep-end in the Dewhurst (Group 1) in Newmarket.
The Coolcullen colt travelled nicely before tiring and finished only 10th behind St Mark’s Basilica. But it was significant that Bolger considered him good enough to take his chance there and that he’s bringing him out again so soon.
LEOPARDSTOWN SATURDAY
Peter O’Hehir
1.50 Benaud
2.25 Laughifuwant
3.00 Poetic Flare
3.35 Lord Park
4.10 Son Of Hypnos
4.45 Haparanda
5.15 The Mouse Doctor
Next Best
1.50 Avagardner
2.25 Real Force
3.00 Ontario
3.35 Aiseirigh
4.10 Sage Advice
4.45 Halimi
5.15 El Tren
Double: Benaud and Lord Park.
O’Hehir’s Longshot: Loved Out (4.10)
