Johnny Ward's Irish Angle: two top tips for Gowran

It's one of Gowran's big days of the year on Saturday, with good renewals of the Red Mills Chase and Red Mills Trial Hurdle on the cards.

I have gone for a couple of horses in the lesser races.

Tony Martin-trained gambles are a rare thing nowadays. Oh, to recall those plunges in the old days, including the Thyestes win of Dun Doire, who got in at this track as a reserve in 2006.

Zanndabad was thus anomalous at Naas last time, when hammered into favourite, and he duly improved on his previous run but not to the extent the market forecast. The Iffraaj-bred has an edge on four of these on that run.

Indeed, despite things going a little awry, he almost traded odds-on in running. He should have a good chance of reversing that form with the runner-up, Mighty Mo Missouri, who has already had four runs over hurdles and was inferior on the Flat.

Zanndabad made a hash of the third-last but generally jumped and travelled like a nice horse under Bryan Cooper, who remains loyal.

Barry O’Connell could train his first Cheltenham winner next month in the shape of Marine Nationale and he has a big contender here in Slane Hill, who ran a blinder on his handicap debut here on Thyestes day.

He was labouring from the top of the straight but flashed home into third. With any improvement, he seems sure to get involved. The stable’s strike-rate of 29 per cent is staggering.