Weekend NAP - February 22nd

Naas 3.50 - An Cathaoir Mor

Last Week: Agus A Vic, WON @ 11/4

Season to date: +0.25

Some decent graded races at Naas this Sunday, but the best bets appear to be in the 'lesser' races. An Cathaoir Mor ran a cracker over course and distance two starts ago, chasing home the classy pair Cousin Vinny and Realt Dubh, and built on the promise of that with a narrow win in a hot handicap at Gowran last time. A 6lb hike looks lenient as the runner-up Farringdon is a solid yardstick and the fourth home Savitha franked the form in no uncertain terms at Leopardstown last week. The selection has shown up consistently well on this sort of ground (excluding maiden hurdles, his form figures on yielding-soft or worse are:1331) and is over-priced at 4/1 on the tissue. The favourite Pistol Flash looks a well-handicapped horse but is hard to fancy on her most recent effort when the money was down and his biggest danger could be the four-year-old Celtic Strand, who's age group have been running well in this type of race.
The opening event is as hot a maiden hurdle as you're likely to see at this time of year and narrow preference is for Puyol over Smoking Aces. He split a pair of subsequent winners last time and may just be better suited by the minimum trip that Tom Taaffe's runner. In the staying handicap hurdle, Don't Rush It is sure to enjoy the step up to 3 miles. His best effort by far came over 2m7f at Thurles (the form of which looks solid) and he is a half-brother to the decent staying chaser Howaya Pet. His last run over an insufficient two miles is masking the fact that he's in good form and can take the measure of Tooman Lake.