Selection can surprise the hot favourite, Honeysuckle, on the opening day of the
Dublin Festival
It is not available to viewers of ITV4 but the
Irish Champion Hurdle is undoubtedly the big race of the day, with the betting market evidently expecting Honeysuckle to reveal herself as a star. Henry de Bromhead’s mare remains unbeaten but new questions are asked by this step back in trip on drying ground at a track she has never visited.
At 2-1 or thereabouts, Sharjah (3.10) is surely the way to go. But for a fall as a novice, he would have won Grade Ones at Leopardstown for the last three Christmases and he should be hard to beat in these conditions. Aramon ran Klassical Dream to a head here a year ago and makes each-way appeal.