LEOPARDSTOWN SATURDAY PREVIEWS: THERE MIGHT be a pair of Grade One races up for grabs at Leopardstown today but the lure of a big-money handicap remains high and Emma Jane looks the horse to sort out the annual Paddy Power Chase puzzle.
A total of 28 runners line up for the €190,000 day two feature, with Chelsea Harbour topping the weights after Tom Mullins elected to run his good stayer here instead of in tomorrow's Lexus.
Further down the weights is the sole cross-channel-trained raider Osako d'Airy, although Paul Nicholls looks to have more likely big-race candidates over the holiday period than this six-year-old.
Usually the winners of this intensely competitive race come from the bottom end of the handicap and this year can prove no exception, with Willie Mullins looking to provide a suitable candidate in Emma Jane.
Unlike the grizzled veteran stayer types which normally run in this kind of gruelling handicap, Emma Jane comes here comparatively unexposed as this will be just her seventh start over fences.
The last of them yielded a Punchestown Festival victory last April when proving a length too good for Vic Venturi over an extended three miles.
Some will point to her not having had a start since then but Mullins is sure to have her ready for a task like this and it is encouraging that Emma Jane has run well first time in the past, winning in 2006 and finishing second to Gazza's Girl a year later.
A 10st 9lb impost is pretty eye-catching in a race like this although, typically, there will be no shortage of fancied opposition.
Lurking even further down at the bottom end of the handicap is Conem whose last appearance yielded a dramatic defeat of Savitha when running on really well over a two-mile trip.
Willie Austin's horse has been busy in recent times but this will be his first attempt at three miles, which is an obvious question-mark. The nearest Conem has got to it was the two and three quarter miles at which he was third in a novice event at Thurles a year ago.
Naas-based Arthur Moore is always a trainer to respect in big-money handicaps around Leopardstown and he runs an interesting one in Notable d'Estruval this time.
The seven-year-old was threatening to become one of those expensive-to-follow horses until he won at last April's Punchestown Festival and followed up with a third at the same meeting a couple of days later.
A first start of this season over hurdles didn't produce anything sparkling but it should have helped put Notable d'Estruval near spot on for this assignment.
The Co Cork trainer Robert Tyner has an excellent record in the Paddy Power and he relies on the good mare Callherwhatulike this afternoon.
She was Grade One placed as a novice around here and is an entirely admirable sort whose form is an open book to the handicapper. However, there remains a suspicion that three miles might be stretching her stamina just a bit.
Operation Houdini has been near the top of the ante-post betting for this race for some time and trainer Davy Fitzgerald has elected to run here instead of travelling to Chepstow for the Welsh National.
That looks a sound decision but Operation Houdini has been busy recently and could be vulnerable to a fresher customer. Emma Jane looks to fit that bill.
