RACING MELBOURNE CUP NEWS:PAT SMULLEN may be in pursuit of Ireland's jockeys' championship but missing out on two vital home fixtures isn't casting any pall over his anticipation of next Tuesday's Melbourne Cup attempt on Profound Beauty.
The five-times champion is having a fourth try at the “race that stops a nation” with three rides on Vinnie Roe already under his belt.
They included a memorable second under topweight Makybe Diva seven years ago and although Smullen received plenty of flak from Australian commentators on the back of that ride, that hasn’t coloured his view of the €4.3. million highlight.
“Criticism comes with the territory down there. I’ve had plenty of it through my career and I’m not going to let it start getting to me now!” he quipped ahead of starting the long trip Down Under this morning.
“It’s an amazing event, so different to any other race I’ve ridden in. The atmosphere is more like a big football game. It’s just a real big sporting event and I’m really looking forward to riding one of the biggest races in the world on a horse with a great chance,” Smullen added.
Profound Beauty was fifth under Aussie rider Glen Boss in 2008 and endured a marathon 47- hour journey to Australia earlier this month that initially appeared to take its toll.
However, she has impressed observers at the Werribee quarantine centre with her recovery and her recent work.
“Once we got her down there we knew she’d take to the place well. David Phillips is looking after her and she seems to have got over the trip and everything is set. I arrive in Thursday night and I’ll ride her on Friday morning, see how she is,” the jockey said.
A vital component to Profound Beauty’s chances of emulating the Dermot Weld duo Vintage (1993) and Media Puzzle (2002) will be ground conditions.
“There’s no getting away from the fact that if it is typical Aussie firm it will be too quick for her. We hope there is an ease. They’re having broken weather and if there are a few showers and the ground comes up nice I think we will have a massive chance,” Smullen said.
Profound Beauty is guaranteed a start in Tuesday’s two-mile feature which has 47 entries scrambling for a place in a maximum field of 24.
The Godolphin duo Holberg and Eastern Aria are currently only 31st and 33rd in line respectively to run, while Luca Cumani’s Drunken Sailor is also teetering on the edge in 32nd.
Home hopes, however, are revolving around the heavy favourite So You Think, the dual-Cox Plate winner who is rated one of the finest middle distance runners seen in Australia for years, and who is set to try and provide Bart Cummings with a 13th Melbourne Cup success.
“All the quotes I’ve read from those who’ve ridden against him have been very impressive and he is clearly a very talented horse. He’s going to be hard to beat,” added Smullen.
The trip to Australia means Smullen’s lengthy struggle with Johnny Murtagh and Fran Berry for the jockeys’ championship has to be temporarily placed on the back-burner.
He will miss out on this Friday’s Dundalk meeting as well as the last turf meeting of 2010 in Ireland at Leopardstown on Sunday.
Smullen is on the 91 winner mark for the season, eight ahead of Murtagh, who in turn has three in hand of Berry.
“It’s not ideal in a situation where you are chasing a championship but you don’t get opportunities to ride a horse like this is in one of the world’s biggest races too often,” he concluded.
Profound Beauty is currently as high as 20-1 in ante-post betting for the Cup and Dermot Weld added: “We are quietly confident but she is an outsider and it is going to be a tough race to win this year.”
Aidan O’Brien’s classic hopeful Recital could attempt a quick follow up from his impressive Navan debut in Leopardstown’s Listed feature on Sunday.
Recital is a 25 to 1 shot for next year’s Epsom Derby after impressing Johnny Murtagh at Navan last week and is one of four Ballydoyle hopefuls for this weekend’s Listed Race Against Breast Cancer Eyrefield Stakes.
The nine-furlong event has been won by subsequent classic winners Vinnie Roe and Yesterday in the last decade and O’Brien also has the option of running the impressive Tipperary winner Obligation whose form ties in with both Dubai Prince and Seville.
Another Eyrefield hopeful is Kevin Prendergast’s Tiz The Shot who broke his maiden in style at Leopardstown on Bank Holiday Monday.
A total of 17 entries remain in Sunday’s jumping feature, the €55,000 Paddy Power Cork Grand National at Mallow racecourse.
They include Adrian Maguire’s Munster National winner Golden Kite who has been raised 7lbs for his narrow Limerick success earlier this month.
Promising Prince of Fire looks like a value alternative
SOME HIGHLY rated hurdlers take to fences for the first time in today’s two-mile Beginners Chase at Punchestown and it could be worth taking a chance that Prince Of Fire takes to them best of all, writes Brian O’Connor.
Charlie Swan’s five year old doesn’t have the profile of the Grade Three winner Noble Prince or the Grade One runner-up Saludos who will garner much of the focus this afternoon.
Throw in another high-class hurdler in Healys Bar as well as the more experienced Otay Kawn and Bob Lingo and this is an ultra-competitive midweek contest.
However Noble Prince’s best form is at longer trips while Saludos looks better suited to going right-handed so Prince Of Fire could represent a value alternative. Swan has never hidden his regard for the German bred who was bought by JP McManus after winning a maiden hurdle last Christmas, following which the trainer revealed: “He could be the best horse I’ve ever trained in time. He is a real jumper and has loads of gears.”
Big Robert is a tricky individual but talented enough to have won the Irish Lincolnshire on the flat last Spring. His jumping debut at Listowel could have gone either way but he looked to relish the new challenge and can be fancied to go close in today’s opener.
Magnanimity returned to action on the flat at Navan earlier this month but makes the graduation to fences in the two and a half mile Beginners Chase where he is Davy Russell’s pick of the Michael O’Leary runners.
