The Sallymount Maiden Hurdle, at Roscommon tonight, the first three-year-old event of the new National Hunt Season, is a signal that Autumn is fast drawing in on us. Long before Noel Meade had achieved his first trainer's championship in the past campaign, he had made a name for himself for having his juvenile hurdlers particularly well tutored.
It is for this reason that I take Fable to beat High Stakes even if he was a McDonogh Handicap flop at Galway. He scored first time out on the flat last year and can duplicate that feat over jumps.
It could turn out to be a competitive opener as the J P McManus-Christy Roche team, likewise, have a runner that was highly rated in his first season.
Even before Christy retired from race riding he had shown that like Meade he could "school" his novices with skill. This is High Stakes first run of the year though and Fable could be the fitter of the pair.
Charles O'Brien could make it two winners from two runners with Kilkenny Castle (7.00) and Romancia (8.00). The former was beaten by the ex-English Sapphire Trio when an even money favourite at Dundalk but in view of the good run by the winner at Galway on Sunday against Moiseyev, he rates another chance.
Romancia, which O'Brien trains for his father, Vincent, is a well-bred newcomer who may have the legs of Abracadabra, an outpaced third to Lady Luck over a mile at Cork first time out.
The Balbriggan trainer Peter Cluskey is less used to having double prospects but he has two handicappers that make this a possibility this evening, namely Joking Rebuff (6.30) and Spring To Mind (7.30).
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