NOTEBOOKS AT THE READY FOR INCREDIBLE SHELBOURNE UNRACED

Ian Fortune

Over the weekend at Towcester, with so many Irish on site, there was plenty of chatter and whispers about some hugely promising youngsters set to appear in the upcoming unraced at Shelbourne Park.

Yesterday, the draw was made for Friday’s opening round of the hugely valuable Celtic Cooling Refrigeration & Air Conditioning ON1 525 and it seems the whispers were fully justified.

The competition, which is worth a whopping €15,000 to the winner, is packed with hugely promising pups, boasting some exceptional trial form and some superb pedigrees. There are too many to mention, although a couple really do stand out.

A RED-HOT CONTEST

Heat 4 is particularly hot. Liam Dowling, Pat Norris, Owen McKenna, Liam Peacock and Pat Buckley all send out promising youngsters in this contest.

The eye is immediately drawn to Glengar Silent. A son of Droopys Sydney and Derby runner-up Singalong Sally, the Pat Buckley trained youngster flew around Limerick in 28.48 earlier this month before posting 28.31 around Tralee just nine days later.

Liam Dowling’s Ballymac Stud is bred to be fast and flew around Shelbourne in 18.67 and 18.73 in recent sprint trials, while the Owen McKenna trained Buster Eight flew around Kilkenny in 16.36 recently. Throw in Bogger Bob, who recently clock 28.77 in a trial at Shelbourne, and it really is a hot affair.

MAJOR COULD BE ANYTHING

Perhaps the most interesting runner in the entire stake is Pat Guilfoyle’s Magical Major.

A brother to Magical Luka, who remains unbeaten after five career starts, he flew around Limerick in a recent sprint trial, posting 18.35. He lines out in Heat 5 where he won’t have things easy with a number of his rivals also boasting impressive qualifying form. These include Born Ranger, a son of Derby winner Born Warrior, who posted 28.64 around Clonmel lately.