It’s Ladies’ Day at the Galway Races and as much as we’d like to spend our day admiring the fine fillies of the human variety strutting their stuff at Ballybrit, we have to instead concentrate on the far more serious business of trying to put money in punters’ pockets.
Day three was yet another bumper pay day for Dermot Weld, with Endless Intrigue, Rock Critic and Unaccompanied all romping home and although our tips for yesterday revolved around other members of Weld’s stable, Majestic Concorde and Duc De Savouie, at least we had the right idea.
Today, we like the look of Dirar in the big one, the Guinness Galway Hurdle at 4.50. The five year old is under the care of respected trainer, Gordon Elliott, who has already had five winners across the water this week and saw another from his stable, Hoopy triumph at 8/1 in the 4.10 yesterday after a stewards’ inquiry.
Dirar impressed when winning at Ayr on the flat and over hurdles in Listowel last month and will be mounted by Barry Geraghty, who rode Invisible Man to victory on Tuesday. Dirar can be backed for this one at 9/2.
Elsewhere, it’s one of the biggest nights in the history of Shamrock Rovers, with the Hoops hosting Italian giants Juventus in the qualifying stages of the Europa League. Most of the 6,000 fans packed into Tallaght Stadium will be feverish home supporters intent on creating as intimidating an atmosphere as possible for Luigi Delniri’s star-studded side, which will contain stars such as Gigi Buffon, Giorgio Chiellini and Felipe Melo, who we can only hope are still suffering from a World Cup hangover.
We don’t think Rovers will pull off an historic victory tonight, but feel that Michael O’Neill’s compact outfit will make it mighty difficult for their more illustrious counterparts and go down fighting. Juventus to win the tie 1-0 is available at 5/1.
JOE’s Daily Double: Dirar (Galway, 4.50 @ 9/2) and Juventus to beat Shamrock Rovers 1-0 at 5/1.
