1.40 Red Mills Irish EBF Auction Novice Hurdle 2m

There is very little between Captain Cody and Backtonormal who were second and third at Answer To Kayf last time at Naas and renew rivalry off the same terms. The former, trained by Willie Mullins and ridden by Paul Townend, is likely to go off favourite, perhaps by virtue of his connections alone, but Backtonormal has a reasonable chance of reversing the form. He had actually been beaten much further than Captain Cody on their previous meeting at Gowran, so Naas was a step in the right direction and this small field race might well be run in a similar style to that contest.