BEST of the BETS

Valuable race for amateur riders, known as the Amateur riders Irish Derby. Willie Mullins has done well in this last couple of years (he had 1st & 2nd last year and 1st, 3rd & 4th in 2017), and Mr Adjudicator has a good chance but I feel 2/1 is a silly price in a race of this nature especially when you consider only 1 favourite (in 2014) has won this in last 20 years. 4 and 5 year old horses have a good record in this, in last 20 years 4 year olds have won this 7 times from 101 runners, matched exactly by 5 year olds with 7 wins from 101 runners also, compared to just 6 wins from 218 runners from horses aged 6 & over. I have sided with one of the 4 year olds, BABA BOOM (14/1), who completed a hat trick of handicap wins in impressive fashion last year, last of those wins was in mile and half handicap on this card, joined JP McManus after that win and hasn’t been seen since then so fitness has to be taken on trust but he showed last year he has a bit of class and it will be interesting to see if he has progressed. Although his dam is related to top class sprinters The Tin Man & Deacon Blues, there is enough stamina in pedigree to suggest this step up to 2 miles+ won’t be a problem. Previous festival form is a positive, one negative is that he has a big weight of 11-4, in last 20 years only 1 winner (Ghimaar, who carried 11-11 in 2009) has carried more than 11-1 (from 110 runners), incidentally Ghimaar had also won the same race as Baba Boom the previous year.

It’s a very competitive race of course and many can be fancied, but hopefully mine will run well too.

Small bet on Baba Boom (William Hill are 14/1, few others 12/1, most offering 5 places for each way)

Good luck.