Cheltenham supplement
NEXT Saturday’s edition of The Irish Field will include a free 32-page Cheltenham Festival supplement. It features betting advice from Rory Delargy, Donn McClean, Matt Tombs of Weatherbys and Tony Keenan of Sky Sports Racing. There are interviews with jockeys J.J. Slevin and Michael O’Sullivan, trainer Colm Murphy and James Fenton of the Closutton and Blue Blood Racing Clubs. Preview night reports and all the latest stage entries for the 28 Festival races will also be included.
Classic winner entered
HOMELESS Songs is one of the high-profile entries for Lodge Park Stud Park Express Stakes at the Curragh on Saturday, March 25th. The Dermot Weld trained four year old landed the Tattersalls Irish 1000 Guineas last year for owner Moyglare Stud and is one of 26 entries for the Group 3 contest. Other notable contenders include Agartha, Insinuendo, Sunset Shiraz, Never Ending Story and Kerkiyra.
Compas supporting Naas
COMPAS Stallions will sponsor five races at Naas on Sunday, March 26th, the track’s first flat fixture of the year. Owned and managed by Micheal Orlandi, Compas stands four flat stallions at Starfield Stud in Mullingar, Co Westmeath. A free nomination to Kuroshio, Far Above, King Of Change and Dubawi Legend respectively will be offered to the breeders of the winners of the Naas races named after those stallions.
Bumper winner sold online
LAST Sunday’s Hereford bumper winner Mikimoto was sold for £46,000 yesterday on the Thoroughbid platform. The four-year-old Scorpion gelding was owned and trained by Henry Daly when he made a winning debut last weekend.
He was bought by trainer Martin Keighley. Ronan McNally offered stable stars Dreal Deal, The Jam Man and Vee Dancer for sale but all failed to match their reserve, the bidding for each one falling just short of £50,000.
Price increase
THE cover price of The Irish Field will increase to €4.50 next Saturday. This 4.5% increase is the first price change since April 8th, 2022, and is due to rising costs.
PTP winners added to NH sales catalogues
WINNERS in Irish and British point-to-points will be listed in jumps sales catalogues, following a decision by the International Cataloguing Standards Committee (ICSC) European sub-committee. This move was due to be made 18 months ago but was pulled at the last minute.
Currently, winning Irish and British point-to-point performers are classified as runners, but not as winners in either the subject horse detail or the dam summary line. A statement issued jointly by Tattersalls Ireland and Goffs said: “This rule change gives greater clarity around the presentation of form in National Hunt catalogues. It addresses the clear anomaly whereby catalogues have listed any point-to-point performers to be runners for the dam, but do not consider a winner of such a contest to be relevant for the mare.”
Craven catalogue released
THERE are 202 lots catalogued for the Tattersalls Craven Breeze Up Sale, which will take place from Monday, April 17th to Wednesday, April 19th.
Good week for Scorpion
IT’S been a good week for Scorpion, who stands with James and Marian Hannon at The Old Road Stud in Tallow, Co Waterford. Scorpion had a debut bumper winner, Mikimoto, at Hereford last Sunday, and at Clonmel on Thursday his daughter My Design won on her chasing debut.