Irish Eyes: No stopping Ranger

Irish Eyes returns to pick out the best bets on a stellar Leopardstown card on day one of Irish Champions Weekend.

Recommendations

Nap: US Army Ranger, 5.05 Leopardstown (US Army Ranger is a Sky Bet Price Boost)

Next Best: Awtaad, 6.10 Leoaprdstown 

Each-Way: Radanpour, 4.35 Leopardstown 

When legendary Irish stud master Joe Foley and his associates devised a plan to host a Champions weekend in Ireland, never in their wildest dreams could they have envisaged attracting not only the largest field and best field for a Qipco Irish Champion Stakes but what is, unequivocally, the single best Flat race ever held on Irish soil.  

Flat racing in Ireland is essentially regarded by the paying public as more of a business then a sport, in comparison to NH racing which attracts significantly larger crowds at meeting such as Galway, but if today’s card fails to get record numbers thorough the turnstiles for Qipco Champions Day, then nothing will.     

The opening race on the card is a €30,000 Fillies’ maiden and Wild Irish Rose would have got the vote were it not for her drawing the 16 stall and whilst that may not stop her, it certainly is of no assistance and it’s possible that the unfashionably bred I’m So Fancy might be worth a small interest at 22/1 with Sky Bet.

The next, the Champions Juvenile Stakes, has seen four running’s to-date with Aidan O’Brien having won each and every one.  He is represented this afternoon by Douglas Macarthur and given the tangible and hugely significant sums invested in Ballydoyle by joint-owner Marcus Jooste’s Mayfair Speculators, you get the feeling this race has been pencilled in as the crowning moment for the son of Galileo. 

Having cost £1.25m guineas …

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