Irish Cambridgeshire

A brief lull in the day and, as I haven’t been called up by The Sealed Knot Society to defend Parliament, my mind has inevitably turned to The Irish Question. Elsewhere, The Pharoah of Galway, (one day I shall reveal how he was given that name by a man whose long-dogs were the talk of Sevenhouses), has already expressed an opinion for the Group 3.

However, the truly complicated race at the Curragh is the Irish Cambridgeshire.

The 26-strong field is headed by Ger Lyons’ Psychedelic Funk. Ger won this with Sea Wolf under Colin Keane in 2016, while there are two British challengers in David O’Meara’s Hortzadar and Richard Fahey’s Zap. I can’t be having either of them, as English-trained winners are rarer than hen’s teeth.

Ado (Adrian) McGuinness has four with Saltonstall, Sirjack Thomas, Aussie Valentine and Current Option, the latter having recently moved from Willie Haggas yard. As he stepped off the boat he got snipped and then ran a decent race at Cork following his £85k sale. I had noted him at Thirsk before that, as he kept looking promising and not delivering – and I am now relying on the cruellest cut, sharpening CURRENT OPTION up. (Geddit?)

The other Aidan has taken this a few times including last year with a rare 3yo winner, Kenya. Tonight he runs Turnberry Isle, while son Joseph has a trio with Numerian, Equitant and Cosmic Horizon, the latter carrying the colours of Irish rugby coach Joe Schmidt.

As I have I think mentioned before, I put NUMERIAN into the notebook, after his Britannia 5th, but his run LTO has made me wonder whether the brain is still engaged. He does get 6lb WFA concession as a 3yo but I still worry if that is enough. The market appears unconcerned having made him favourite!

Finally, ICE COLD IN ALEX is in with a chance. He likes the Curragh and ran well LTO in the 6f Scurry. He’ll handle the increase in the distance but might need aa bit of wind to dry the ground out.

So who am I going with? Well based on getting five places from a number of bookmakers, I’m doing three in this race and they are CURRENT OPTION, JASSAAR and ONLY HUMAN. I have to have Jassaar as I had him down for the Royal meeting’s Hunt Cup and was surprised when he turned up a week later in an 8f Curragh Handicap., where he was 2nd. He then turned up at The Scurry where he ran as though in a prep race – heaven forfend – and with luck in running is certainly good for a place. Jess runs ONLYHUMAN, who was a 6l 3rd in a Listed LTO. He’s a two-time winner including 8f at Limerick three starts ago. He is consistent, and you’d have to say that there does look as though there is still a little left up the sleeve.