15:40 Thurles

In what doesn’t seem to be the strongest of contests it must represent a decent opportunity for NEW ROSS to follow up. This 7yo was back to his best winning convincingly over C&D last month and a 7lb rise shouldn’t be enough to stop him going in again. This track seemed to really play to his strengths and under prominent tactics again he should always be in the box seat to strike here. Hey Johnny won nicely at Clonmel back in October but has some worrying form figures since unseating at Cheltenham and then pulling up at Gowran.

He was thrown in at the deep end behind Impaire Et Passe at Punchestown last time but even still I wouldn’t have him this short for this. Popova made a winning debut over C&D last month but struggled at Fairyhouse 3 weeks ago and her opening mark is certainly no given so she will need to improve to win this. Rock On Cassie will likely need this on return and Zoffanien is badly out of form.

New Ross - 1pt