David Wachman is the trainer with the best double prospects at Fairyhouse this afternoon when he can win the Tolka 3-Y-O Maiden Hurdle with Pro Dancer and the Batterstown Handicap Hurdle with Derravarra Sunset.
A 40,000 guineas yearling, Pro Dancer looked an assured flat winner this term after running third last season behind Mediterranean. The winner, while he was out of luck in Saturday's Doncaster St Leger, had previously won the Ebor Handicap.
Pro Dancer began by running Lunardi to a short head over a mile at Cork in April but we saw little enough of him afterwards until he finished a close second to Pasteur over hurdles at Tralee. He is napped to make amends for those near flat and jumping misses.
In contrast, Derravarra Sunset has found winning easy, with three victories from six starts in 2001. She goes up in distance for her first handicap but the fashion in which she dictated her last run over 2m would suggest that she will get the extra distance.
John Murtagh could be the man for a flat double as he rides Keen Look for the Gerard Keane in the Tattersalls Median Auction Race and Telegraph Road for his retaining trainer John Oxx.
Keen Look was up against a smart Ballydoyle juvenile Della Francesca with previous place form at York to his credit, and as he tried to give the odds- on favourite a start, he had to be content with fourth money at Leopardstown.
Telegraph Road has been twice runner up so far and the best of her four runs was her first when she got within a neck of Ventura at Naas in June.
The most intriguing of her rivals is Flying Knight. There was a big tip for him at the Curragh on 2,000 Guineas day and he was a morning prices job that went awry behind Julie Jalouse. His second run indicated that he is a horse with real ability if he could be coaxed into producing it. The race was the Gallinule Stakes and he finished best of all to be fourth to Exaltation, who was the supplemented against Galileo in the Budweiser Irish Derby.
Tony McCoy has been installed as a 4 to 5 chance with the Tote to beat Sir Godon Richards's all-time record of 269 winners in a season.
And McCoy is only 3 to 1 to achieve what many would have thought unthinkable a few years ago - 300 winners in one campaign.
It was back in 1947 that Richards notched up his tally, and few riders have come close to denying him the record, although McCoy has achieved a best score of 253 in a season.
However, following his fastest century ever at Plumpton on Monday, McCoy is a short price to deny Sir Gordon his long-standing place in history.
Tote PR director, Matt Chapman, said: "It might seem a short price at 4 to 5, but if Tony McCoy keeps riding as he is at the moment then it is very reasonable to assume he will beat Sir Gordon Richards's record. Quite simply, McCoy is in a class of his own.
"McCoy has the backing of an extremely successful and powerful yard in Martin Pipe's, and he also has the support of plenty of outside stables. He gets many more outside rides than the likes of Peter Scudamore and Richard Dunwoody got when they were stable jockey for Pipe. Obviously, the price for McCoy to set the record will change throughout the season, but if he remains injury-free and does not feel the wrath of the stewards, he must have every chance of winning more races in a season than any other rider."
Francois Doumen's Jim And Tonic, who is seen regularly on the Far East circuit, was an impressive two lengths winner of the Group Three La Coupe de Maisons-Laffite over a mile and a quarter yesterday.
