Trip to suit Kinnescash

The gallant Kinnescash can secure rich compensation for just failing in Thursday's Galway Hurdle by winning the £20,000 Dawn Milk Handicap Hurdle on the sixth and final day of the Galway festival.

Welsh trainer Peter Bowen had Kinnescash prepared to the minute for Thursday and the gelding so nearly made all the running, only for the useful flat operator Toast The Spreece to outkick him on the run-in.

There will be nothing with that kind of finishing burst against Kinnescash today, especially over the two and three-quarter mile trip which he will relish. Bowen said yesterday: "He has come out of the big race very well and the trip should suit him ever better. We have to be very hopeful."

In fact it could be a very good day for Bowen, who runs Andrelot in the Galway Blazers Handicap Chase. Second in this race two years ago, the ground is a slight worry for the 10-year-old, but he is still marginally preferred to No Tag.

The Premier Nursery is understandably competitive considering its £15,000 pot, but slight preference is for the Sligo winner, Bombay Mix, who should improve for today's seventh furlong and stiff finish.

One who will carry a measure of confidence, however, is Beneficent who justified considerable stable confidence at Leopardstown last month and can follow up in the bumper. The Dermot Weld newcomer, Arms Ban, could emerge as Beneficent's main danger; while Padashpan should have improved for his run here earlier in the week and is selected in the Kerry Spring Handicap.

The new Cork track could get a glimpse of its future when its first black type race, the listed Dairygold Platinum Stakes, takes place tomorrow.

The nine-furlong contest will feature a clash of the generations, and it looks like the three-year-olds could have the edge, with Jim Bolger's Swift Gulliver taken to beat No Slouch.

The pair met at the Curragh last Saturday when No Slouch finished closest to the talented Nobility, with Swift Gulliver back in third. But that was the Bolger runner's first effort of the season and significant improvement can be expected. John Oxx must be reasonably confident of scoring a double with Islamorada in the Dairygold Handicap and the newcomer, Cardigan Bay, in the Paddy Mellerick Maiden.

Islamorada was an unlucky loser of the Ulster Oaks at Down Royal, having had to be switched around a wall of horses at a vital stage and more than a few fingers will be stung if she doesn't get compensation here.