After a last minute withdrawal from York on Friday to be entered at Navan today in the Coolmore Vintage Crop Stakes running at 3.20 in Navan. Aidan O’Brien is gearing Bondi Beach up for the Ascot Gold Cup in June. He also has an eye on The Melbourne Cup which Bondi Beach ran in last year but failed to make the grade finishing in sixteenth place. Connections say he has to be right off his game to lose today, that said odds are not great currently standing at 1/3 with Ladbrokes.
There are only four runners in this 1m6f race and the ground is good to firm. AK Welds horse Zannda is second favourite, but with Bondi Beach beating him conclusively at Limerick it looks like it may be a one horse race. Odds for Zannda are 6/1 with William Hill.
The other two horses are John E Kiely’s Toe The Line and Takeshi Kodama Silwana, connections say Bondi Beach is far too good to let these horses pass him, odds on them are Toe The Line 10/1 with Ladbrokes and Silwana is 16/1 with Paddy Power.
Plenty of other racing around today, with Aidan O’Brien also having a presence at Deauville in France today, The Gurkha runs there in the Poule D'Essai Des Poulains (Group 1) running at 3.20 over 1m. O’Brien has won this race three times before so he’s optimistic that The Gurkha can do the business today. He’s running at second favourite today to Zarak, the Christophe Soumillon trained horse, his mother Zarkava has won this race and they will be hoping the genetics win through and help him past the post in stunning style. Odds for The Gurkha are 6/1 with Coral and for Zarak 3/1 with Coral. Other horses that may come through at Deauville are Zalzal and George Patten, but there are 13 runners and riders today with ground conditions being good, Zarak can run well on any ground so I think it’s between him and The Gurkha but watch that card, when the prices change just before the off it’s a sure sign that a horse has a good each way chance.
As with all races, get those early prices and Good Luck.