Tranquil looks for redress

LEOPARDSTOWN:TRANQUIL SEA has been something of a forgotten horse among the ranks of Ireland's leading novices this season, but his trainer, Edward O'Grady, is hoping Sunday's rearranged Leopardstown card will change that.

Last season’s Punchestown Grade One winner was an impressive winner of his chasing debut at Cork, but finished over 35 lengths behind Trafford Lad on his only subsequent start in November’s Drinmore Chase at Fairyhouse.

Tranquil Sea hasn’t been seen since, despite nothing coming to light to explain his Drinmore disappointment. However, he remains 20 to 1 with Paddy Power for both the RSA Chase and the Arkle at Cheltenham next month, and is due to start in Sunday’s Grade One Dr PJ Moriarty Chase.

“We checked all the boxes after the Drinmore and we got positive ticks in every box,” O’Grady said yesterday. “We still don’t know what the problem was but there was a problem, that’s for sure. It just seems like it was one of those extraordinary things.”

“The only thing I can think of is that I wasn’t entirely happy with him when I was saddling him. I was disappointed with how he looked, and he wasn’t his usual perky self. But who knows.”

O’Grady has entered his Grade One winner Catch Me in Saturday’s Red Mills Trial Hurdle at Gowran Park, a Grade Two race he won impressively last year. However, the horse remains more likely to wait for Monday’s Ladbrokes Boyne Hurdle at Navan instead. “With the way the weather is I entered him on Saturday, and if there was any other suitable race I’d have entered him for that too. But if things manage to return to anywhere near normal it’s more likely he will wait for Monday,” O’Grady said.

In Catch Me’s possible absence, his stable companion Clopf is a more likely starter in a race for which just 10 horses were entered at yesterday’s forfeit stage.

Also engaged is the December Hurdle runner-up Won In The Dark, but he, too, is likely to miss out as Sabrina Harty continues to build him up towards the Champion Hurdle.

“There is only a very small chance he will run, but after seeing the forecast we thought we would put him in it – we’d be annoyed if it dried right out and he wasn’t in,” she said yesterday.

“We are very lucky he is not a stuffy horse. He is very clear-winded, so getting a run into him is not essential. We were talking to Dundalk and we have arranged to take him there this weekend and give him a spin.

“On a strict line through Sublimity he deserves to take his chance in the Champion Hurdle. He has a right to be there and it is very exciting,” she added.

Also entered on Saturday is last year’s runner-up Jazz Messenger.