IT feels like we have had more than three renewals of the Dublin Racing Festival in its current guise. It feels more embedded into the racing calendar than that. And the 2021 renewal is fascinating. Fifteen races, all with deep quality, including eight Grade 1s.

There may be only five runners in the Grade 1 Paddy Power Irish Gold Cup tomorrow, but it is still a top-class contest. The stable companions Kemboy and Melon are bidding to go one better and two better respectively than they did in the Savills Chase at Christmas, and they won’t have A Plus Tard hunting them down this time.

Mullins exacta

It looked like we were all set for a Willie Mullins exacta as they raced around the home turn that day, and they finished well clear of another stable companion, Allaho, in fourth. They are both obviously top-class chasers.

Kemboy won the Savills Chase in 2018 and he won the Betway Bowl at Aintree four months later, and, famously, he beat Al Boum Photo in the Punchestown Gold Cup the following month.

Melon has finished second at the Cheltenham Festival now four times, once in a Supreme Novices’ Hurdle, twice in a Champion Hurdle and last year in the Marsh Chase, but it may be that three miles on winter ground at this level just stretches his stamina.

Minella Indo is a hugely exciting talent, he won the Albert Bartlett Hurdle in 2019 and he was only just mugged by Champ in the RSA Chase last year. He remains a real live Cheltenham Gold Cup contender, but he is very short for tomorrow’s race, going into it on the back of a fall in the Savills Chase and, at more than twice his odds, Delta Work may be the value of the race.

Gordon Elliott’s horse unseated his rider in the Savills Chase, so he does have to put that behind him, but that was a rare blip, it was the only non-completion in his life and, actually, he didn’t jump the fence that badly that day, he just stumbled on the landing side and gave Sean Flanagan no chance.

He was only fifth in the Cheltenham Gold Cup in March, but that race wasn’t run to suit, and the balance of his form suggests that he is a better horse over fences at Leopardstown than he is over fences at Cheltenham.

In his three previous runs at Leopardstown, he won a Neville Hotels Chase, a Savills Chase and an Irish Gold Cup, all over tomorrow’s course and distance. He is very good at Leopardstown, he goes well on soft ground, the small field should suit him and Jack Kennedy, who rode him to victory in the Savills Chase and the Irish Gold Cup last season, will be back on board. He is the highest rated horse in the race. He looks over-priced at 9/2.

Abacadabras

His stable companion Abacadabras looks over-priced too in the Grade 1 Chanelle Pharma Irish Champion Hurdle today.

Gordon Elliott’s horse has to put a disappointing run last time in the Matheson Hurdle behind him, but you can forgive him that run as he scoped poorly after the race. We know that he is a high-class performer at his best. He was a top-class novice last season, he won the Grade 1 Future Champions Novices’ Hurdle over today’s course and distance at Leopardstown’s Christmas Festival last year, and he ran a massive race in the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle to get to within a head of Shishkin, with the pair of them 11 lengths clear of their rivals, when he was in front from a long way out.

He was in front from a long way out too in the Morgiana Hurdle at Punchestown in November, but he just did enough to get home by a neck from Saint Roi. Willie Mullins’ horse re-opposed today, as does his stable companion Sharjah, who has won the last three renewals of the Matheson Hurdle, and, of course, the superstar Honeysuckle, last year’s Irish Champion Hurdle winner, returning to two miles. It is another intriguing contest, but Abacadabras should probably be shorter than the generally available 9/1.

Recommended

Delta Work, Sunday 3.40, 1 point win, 9/2 (generally)

Abacadabras, Saturday 3.15, 1 point win, 9/1 (generally)