MOST eyes will be on Leopardstown today of course, the first day of the Dublin Racing Festival, with all the intrigue that goes with that and four Grade 1 races. There is one Grade 1 race at Sandown too, the Virgin Bet Scilly Isles Chase, a race that Gordon Elliott won last year with Gerri Colombe, who proved that two and a half miles on good to soft ground at a park track was no problem at all.

Today’s test might be a sharper test than ideal for favourite Hermes Allen, mind you. Paul Nicholls’ horse stayed on strongly to win the Hyde Novices’ Hurdle and the Challow Hurdle last season, but he came up short in the Ballymore Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival, and he could only finish third behind Irish Point and Kateira in the Mersey Novices’ Hurdle over two and a half miles at Aintree in April.