Galway Plate preview: Donn McClean best bets
By Donn McClean
18:26 · WED July 28, 2021
Donn McClean has two against the field for the tote Galway Plate including an interesting JP McManus runner.
They reckon that over 40,000 people went to Ballybrit for the first Galway Plate in 1869. That is about 240,000 fewer people than went to Ballybrit to see Pope John Paul II 110 years later – it can hold a crowd all right – but it is 39,000 more than there will be in attendance today.
These are the times through which we are navigating our way these days and, actually, there was atmosphere in Ballybrit over the last couple of days. It’s not the normal Galway buzz, but it’s something. Some people is a significant step up on no people.
Punchestown Tuesday preview: Donn McClean tips
By Donn McClean
10:53 · TUE April 27, 2021
Our man thinks Colreevy is overpriced at Punchestown today and he has a 12/1 fancy for the big handicap hurdle on the card.
Punchestown Tuesday best bets:
Best in handicaps: Champagne Gold (4.50)
And so begins a Punchestown Festival like no other, the culmination of a season that has no precedent. There hasn’t been one since 2019, when Monkfish was beaten in a bumper and Ruby Walsh retired, and we have missed it.
There will be sub-plots this week for sure, like the jockeys’ championship sub-plot. Paul Townend, returned from injury, four clear of Rachael Blackmore, 95-91, with five fantastic racing days left. And the amateurs’ title on the line, Patrick Mullins 45, Jamie Codd 45, each of them with three rides today and three rides tomorrow in a battle that could run to Saturday evening.
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Horse by horse guide to the BoyleSports Irish Grand National at Fairyhouse
By Donn McClean
17:10 · SUN April 04, 2021
Donn McClean leaves no stone unturned as he runs the rule over every single horse in the BoyleSports Irish Grand National, settling on Jack Kennedy s mount, Run Wild Fred.
BoyleSports Irish Grand National Chase (Grade A)
When: 5.00pm, Easter Monday
Odds:
Latest Exhibition (Trainer: Paul Nolan – Jockey: Bryan Cooper)
A top class novice who also had Sunday’s Grade 1 two-and-a-half-mile novices’ chase as an option, he was a Grade 1 winner last season as a novice hurdler, and he has finished second to Monkfish in Grade 1 chases twice this season. The defection of Tiger Roll and the resultant raising of the weights was not ideal, but he is a top class individual who could still run a big race under his big weight, and it is interesting that his trainer is fitting cheekpieces for the first time.
Cheltenham Festival: Donn McClean with five Irish handicappers to follow
By Donn McClean
21:45 · MON March 15, 2021
The leading pundit completes his build-up to Cheltenham with five Irish horses expected to outrun their prices in handicaps this week.
You Raised Me Up (Martin Brassil)
You Raised Me Up didn’t run at Cheltenham last year. Third in the Ladbrokes Hurdle at the 2020 Dublin Racing Festival, he was an 11th-hour withdrawal from the County Hurdle, a race that was run on ground that would have been softer than ideal for him.
Martin Brassil’s horse was impressive in winning his maiden hurdle at Listowel in September and, given a nice break after that, he returned to win a good novices’ hurdle at Naas last month. He quickened up nicely that day, and he kept on well to get the better of two talented novices in Petibonome and Feelgood Island.