MONTHLY NOVICE THE SHELBOURNE FEATURE

Ian Fortune

Tonight’s card at Shelbourne Park features just eight races but two of them are finals of valuable sweepstake.

The undoubted highlight is the final of the February Monthly Novice ON2 525 and a few nice types will do battle for the €2,500 prize.

Fastest in the semis was Daring Bullet. Making all, the son of Callaway Pro Am broke smartly to dictate from the early yards in a 29.06 success on a track rated .20 slow. With natural improvement and an ideal draw on the fence, he is clearly a leading hope again.

ArdrahanAldante chased him home last week, but has gone faster in the opening round, posting 29.16 (rated .30 slow). He is another with obvious hopes. That leads us to the only unbeaten runner in the line-up, New Plan. A good winner on debut, she improved on form last week when coming home clear in 29.11 (.20 slow).

Representing Hall of Fame handler Francie Murray, the daughter of Dromana Bucko is clearly on an upward trajectory and could well improve past her rivals. She is given the nod this evening but does need to be on her toes in the early yards.

Ballymac Jayah, Sparta Pro and Underterred complete the line-up and all three are bred to be fast and open to improvement. None of the trio have managed to get their nose in front, however, and they will need to step up on previous efforts to do so here.

New Plan is chosen to take up the running into the turn before going on to see off Daring Bullet and Ardrahan Aldante. 

HANGRY LOOKS THE PART

The final of the Shelbourne Regulars A4 525 is also part of the card and it’s difficult to see past Hangry. He posted a fastest of the round 29.01 on a track rated .20 slow last week and is likely to improve even further. Purely on recent clocks, he is lengths ahead of his rivals and can assert early to justify favouritism this evening. Lolos Littler was four lengths behind him last week and can again emerge as the nearest danger.