Captain set to be under orders

The highly promising Glenfinn Captain will get the chance to step up to the Grade One plate in the St Stephen's Day highlight at Leopardstown as racing gears up for its Christmas festival bonanza.

Up to 70,000 people are expected to pile into Leopardstown during the four-day Christmas festival and the opening feature next Tuesday will be the Durkan New Homes Novice Chase for which Glenfinn Captain has been installed an early 9 to 4 favourite.

A total of 11 horses remain in the Grade One race that has thrown up two mile champions in the past such as Moscow Flyer (2001), Danoli (1996) and Klairon Davis (1994.) Glenfinn Captain carried JP McManus's colours to an ultra-impressive victory on his chasing debut at Fairyhouse in October and the seven year old's trainer Tom Taaffe is unconcerned about the horse not having had an outing since.

"He is in very good form and we're very happy with him. We have been aiming at this for a long time," he said yesterday.

"He was due to run at a meeting in Navan which was called off and there was nothing suitable afterwards. But it shouldn't be a problem. He was a high class novice hurdler who has always been a chaser in the making and he won more or less as we expected at Fairyhouse. He jumped very well and it was a good performance all round. He handles any sort of ground," Taaffe added.

The current going at Leopardstown is officially "soft to heavy" but that should improve with a dry forecast up to Saturday at the least. "Temperatures should get up to seven or nine degrees during daytime hours this week but there will be frosts at night. However it does look good up to Saturday which is all we can tell at the moment," said the Leopardstown manager Tom Burke.

"Last year we had 65,000 people here for the festival and clearly we are hoping to surpass that this time. Reserved enclosure tickets will be €30 for each of the four days and grandstand tickets are €16," he added.

Improving ground conditions will be good news to the Co Dublin trainer Paul Stafford whose stable star, Blueberry Boy, which started second favourite when fourth in the Drinmore at Fairyhouse, will prefer a quicker surface in the Durkan. "He runs unless it gets too heavy but the forecast looks good. It doesn't look like they will get too much rain," Stafford said yesterday. "He didn't like the ground at Fairyhouse but in fairness, Andrew (Lynch) didn't give him a hard race."

Schindlers Hunt was beaten only by Cailin Alainn in the Drinmore and also features among the Durkan entries alongside last season's Coral Cup winner Sky's The Limit as well as Wanango, owned like Glenfinn Captain by JP McManus, who won impressively on his sole chase start to date.

A total of 21 entries remain in the Grade Two Juvenile Hurdle and they include the ex-French Lounaos, the November Handicap winner, who won her sole jumping start to date at Navan for Eoin Griffin.

Her possible opposition include Dermot Weld's Majestic Concorde who had yet to run over jumps but whose last start resulted in a runner-up finish to Iktitaf in the Irish Cesarewitch at the Curragh.

A total of 38 horses remain in the second day highlight at Leopardstown, the lucrative Paddy Power Chase, and the sponsors have installed the former hunter Ballistraw as their 9 to 1 favourite.

The Grade One feature on the Wednesday, however, will be the Dial-A-Bet Chase which will include last year's controversial third, Central House, whose jockey Roger Loughran threw away probable victory on that occasion by celebrating too soon.

Hi Cloy took advantage of Loughran's mistake to win and is among the entries again. Michael Hourigan's horse remains a more likely runner in Kempton's King George VI Chase the day before but a bruised foot problem has arisen and Hourigan is leaving the Leopardstown option open which would leave another day for the horse to recover with less travelling.

Another possible opponent for Central House is the French hope Foreman, the former AIG winner trained by Thierry Doumen, while the highly rated ex-German horse Catch Me is a possible contender for the Grade Future Champions Novice Hurdle on the same card.

Limerick's opening day festival feature will be the €55,000 Grade Two Guinness Greenmount Park Novice Chase and the list of possible runners include Mossbank and the beaten Drinmore favourite King Johns Castle. Conna Castle, who also features among the Durkan entries, could also try and secure a first winning start over fences at Limerick.

DURKAN NEW HOMES NOVICE CHASE:(Cashmans): 9-4 Glenfinn Captain, 4 Blueberry Boy, 5 Wanango, 6 Schindlers Hunt, 7 Don't Be Bitin', 10 Conna Castle, 12 Sky's The Limit and Young Desperado, 16 Hear The Echo, 25 Bar.