ICING ON THE CAKE The Irish brought the curtain down on Cheltenham 2008 in fine style when Silver Jaro, trained by Tom Hogan in Tipperary and written by Noel Fehily, won the Vincent O’Brien County Hurdle at juicy odds of 50/1. The horse is owned by Michael and Mona Masterson. Michael is a native of Glencoe, Derreens, Achill Sound and is now domiciled in London but all the Mastersons’ friends in Achill were thrilled with the victory. Pic: Sportsfile
Loughnane’s boys look good
Punting
Michael Duffy
GER Loughnane has never been one for convention, and it seems in Galway he recorded the difficult second album in his first year.
Year two appears to be going far smoother than his initial 12 months, as ten glorious minutes of hurling in Limerick’s Gaelic Grounds hinted on Sunday. Galway are very difficult to match when they reach those levels of fluency and the 9/2 about them winning Division One of the National Hurling League looks good.
Sunday’s win over Limerick sees them go straight into the semi-finals and lie just two matches away from winning the title. Kilkenny, obviously, remain the big stumbling block but that’s factored into the price.
Galway have the Portumna contingent coming off a good club win, and I expect that Joe Canning will make an appearance in the county colours sooner rather than later.
It sounds implausible to me that he would pass this summer without playing for Galway. And, so if he’s going to play in the summer, he’d need to be joining the panel around about now to avoid any ill-feeling in the camp later in the year. Canning would make a huge contribution to Galway. Loughnane will surely not take No for an answer here.
In the football, Ladbrokes go 4/1 that Kerry will win Division One. That’s an attractive price in my book. Kerry generally improve as the league goes on – notwithstanding the pip-at-the-post by Mayo – and I’d say manager Pat O’Shea will be keen to get a good run out of the league.
He is still trying to introduce a few new players, and you can’t beat a run in the league to see how fellows fare out. With incentive, Kerry are hard to rule out.
This column has already put up Kerry as the likely winners and though they’re only two from four after another last minute defeat two weekends ago, their run-in looks attractive. This weekend they are away to Laois, then home to Kildare and - in what will be the clincher - they must go to Salthill to take on Galway.
Victory in all three looks more than possible, and that will be enough to secure a place in the Division One final. If you haven’t backed Kerry already, that 4/1 is a standout. Get on it quick before someone decides to reel it in a bit.
Recommended
Galway 9/2 (NHL Division One), Kerry 4/1 (NFL Division One)
THE highlight of the Dubai Spring Carnival takes place this weekend — the 13th Dubai World Cup at Nad Al Sheba. Coolmore’s new retained jock Johnny Murtagh looks set to take the ride on second favourite Asiatic Boy for Mike de Kock, but the market has a lop-sided look to it.
The American superstar Curlin is 2/5 in some books to win the race so there is little value to be harvested there. Further down the list though the forgotten horse of the race is worth an interest around the 20/1 mark.
With all the fuss about Invasor’s winning performance in last year’s Dubai World Cup, and the dire show from Discreet Cat in the same race, second-placed Premium Tap received little credit for running the winner to a length and three quarters. Premium Tap was bought by Saudi interests after that race and instead of being prepared for an assault on the Breeders Cup races last autumn, he has been kept fresh for a big run in this race at the weekend. Curlin will be a tough nut to crack, but John Kimmel’s entire stable has a big shout at 20s. The race is live on Channel 4.
