Confident in Castle

The accent may be on the jumps today but the wind-up of the flat is at Leopardstown tomorrow with a card featuring three £25,…

The accent may be on the jumps today but the wind-up of the flat is at Leopardstown tomorrow with a card featuring three £25,000 races.

Most attention will focus on the O'Callaghan Hotels November Handicap where the vote is given to the Paddy Mullins trained Bamford Castle.

The versatile four-year-old won easily at Gowran Park last month and immediately afterwards Michael Kinane nominated this race as a suitable target for the horse

Jamie Spencer takes over in the plate here and Bamford Castle is nominated to take care of the pacey Daraheen Chief and the Christy Roche trained Spokesman.

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Those punters looking for banker material though won't need too much persuasion to row in with the Aidan O'Brien trained Homer in the Listed Eyrefield Stakes.

Major Force ran down the field in the Prix de la Foret and has to give weight away in the Knockaire Stakes but the ground in France was not ideally soft enough and he should be able to concede the weight on more suitable conditions here.

A bumper weekend of racing is completed by a Cork fixture where the feature is the City Life Cork Grand National and there could be a local winner in Eugene O'Sullivan's Excuse Me Sir who should relish the testing conditions.

Super Franky, unlucky at Clonmel, can go in the Beginners Chase while Jim Bolger's Curragh-winner Creidim can follow up in the Nursery.

Brian O'Connor

Brian O'Connor

Brian O'Connor is the racing correspondent of The Irish Times. He also writes the Tipping Point column