Willie Mullins has a sure touch with his mares and Braganza can take the step up in grade here in her stride. She won a novice event by six lengths here at Thurles on her debut for the yard and, while this is tougher, she looked useful that day on what was her first start over hurdles.
She is a recruit from the Ed Dunlop yard, for whom she ran just once in 2017, she was then off the track 1439 days before winning at Thurles for Mullins, who has a 35 % strike rate over the last five years at this track.
Her owner, Sharon Noonan, told us more about her story after that Thurles win. Watch below.
William Hill quote ere at 7-4 in a race where she has bags more potential than her rivals.
This horse has won two of his three starts on the all-weather and when beaten last time out he was returning from four-month lay–off and seemingly needed the run.
He should be sharper now and with the in-form David Probert taking over ion the irons he is worthy of support here.
This represents a drop in grade for him, given that his defeat last time out came in a Class 2 event and here he is top weight in a Class 4. Everything looks to be in place for a big run.
Tyger Bay won here three starts ago, where he was held up off the pace and finished strongly to win going away.
He has had no chance given how the races have panned out in his past two races. On each occasion he was held up in steadily run affairs and could never get involved. With a likely strong gallop here courtesy of Airshow and Equitation he may find that he gets a much more suitable pace scenario.
Three of his four career wins have come here at Kempton, all under Martin Dwyer who is on board again. He has a wide draw in stall 11 but, given that he is usually be dropped out and ridden patiently, that should not pose a problem. At double-figure digits, he rates as a decent play here.
This well-bred colt made a promising debut at Wolverhampton, and he can take a step forward here.
He was a promising third in that race and was unlucky not to finish a shade closer, having been hampered and bumped in the closing stages. The time of that race was good, and Homeric looks sure to improve.
He does have to overcome stall 13, but that task would be much harder were this a handicap rather than a Novice event. With that Wolverhampton experience behind him, he should be sharp enough to adopt a decent early position. He has a very nice pedigree and, related to some useful types, warrants support.