RACING: Tom Foley has confirmed that the star novice, Royal Paradise, is on track to try to make up for his Cheltenham disappointment at the Punchestown festival.
The two-and-a-half-mile Menolly Homes Champion Novice Hurdle on the last day is the target for Royal Paradise who has recovered from the lung infection that ruined his chance in the SunAlliance last month.
The ex-French horse started joint favourite for that race but faded from three out to eventually struggle home in seventh behind No Refuge.
"When you think of the bad lung infection he had he ran a blinder," said Foley yesterday before nominating the two-and-a-half-mile contest as a more likely option than the two miler on Tuesday week.
"The vet in Cheltenham told us the horse would be over the problem in a week and he wasn't wrong. I suppose he picked the wrong day to get sick but if he had got sick at Leopardstown (Deloitte) we wouldn't have even made Cheltenham. At least we know we still have a very good horse. Every horse is entitled to one bad run," he said.
Foley insisted ground conditions will not be an issue for Royal Paradise but Christy Roche will be keeping a close eye on the weather on the run up to Punchestown for his bang in form mare Like-A-Butterfly.
Winner of the Grade One Powers Gold Cup and the Grade Two Mildmay Chase on her last two starts, Like-A-Butterfly has a number of festival options including the Swordlestown Cup over two miles on the Thursday.
"She will run at Punchestown, ground permitting, but she has a number of options and we are not ruling anything out. What I would say is that she seems to getting better with every race and has come out of Liverpool in great shape," said Roche.
The Friday highlight at Punchestown will be the Emo Oil Champion Hurdle which looks like being Brave Inca's target despite also holding an entry in the previous day's Ballymore Properties Stayers Hurdle.
"At the moment I would say the two miler is more likely but I wouldn't completely rule out the other race. I would like to see what else turns up for it," said his trainer Colm Murphy yesterday.
Brave Inca followed up his Cheltenham third with an unlucky fall in last Saturday's Aintree Hurdle but Murphy reports that his stable star has emerged unscathed from that.
The main race at the Curragh this weekend is the Athasi Stakes but the Listed Key Of Luck Woodlands Stakes will see the return to headquarters of the Roger Charlton-trained colt Striking Ambition. John Murtagh rode the horse to win another Listed event at the course in October and is in line to take the mount again. The going at the Curragh is soft on the straight track and yielding to soft on the round.Little change is expected before Sunday.
Navan's feature tomorrow is the Listed Salsabil Stakes where John Oxx could run three fillies including the impressive Cork winner Beautyandthebeast, the likely mount of Michael Kinane.
Last year's Oaks runner-up All Too Beautiful, a full sister to the double Derby hero Galileo, is a possible to kick off her four-year-old campaign in this.
Meanwhile, the Irish Bookmakers Association held its inaugural meeting this week and elected Daragh Fitzpatrick as chairman. The association, which represents 633 of Ireland's betting offices, also elected Paddy Power's Charlie Kelly as vice-chairman.
