Johnny Ward's Friday tips: three selections for the Curragh

Top tips for Friday! Irish racing expert Johnny Ward has three selections for the action at the Curragh, live on Racing TV!

The peak of the heat-wave will have subsided and patrons can expect lovely conditions for day one of the Irish Derby Festival at the Curragh.We don’t need to wait long for obvious intrigue: Coolmore introduces Abraham Lincoln, a son of Wootton Bassett who cost a staggering €2.3m as a yearling, in the Keadeen Hotel Irish EBF Maiden (4.33).Oisin Murphy, who has arguably never been riding better, is home too – and there are no end of talking points as this magnificent track enjoys its big weekend of the season.

Patrick O’Brien and Denis Hogan have had marvellous luck lately with another handicapper - Meriden - and it will be interesting to see where Liberate fits in.

Since joining the stable, a horse who was decent in Britain has been sent off at 66/1 or 80/1 (four starts). She was probably lucky enough to get dropped 2lb for her last run here (beaten under two lengths if you take out the winner in a 19-runner race) and Chris Hayes stays loyal. 

She has to have a chance if she is primed now, and that may have been something of a prep for this. 

I am getting to cliff territory with this horse but bear with me. He was a well-backed Galway Festival maiden winner last year, has good form since in defeat, is said to work very well and I firmly believe the tactics backfired at Cork when he had no cover. 

Intriguingly, the cheekpieces are retained and he is now down to 81, for a yard going well.

It was no surprise that the two miles backfired at Limerick. I tipped him up the previous twice and he looks very well-handicapped on the only time he has run over 12 furlongs. The yard had a double at Naas, recently, too, so their horses are clearly in good form.