Killavullan Stakes Tips & Betting Preview

Race Time: 3.30pm Meeting: Leopardstown Day: Saturday 24th October
Distance: 7f Full Race Name:  Killavullan Stakes (Group Three)

Once again a juvenile race in Ireland needs to be retitled to the Aiden O’Brien show as he has no less than eight of the twelve early entries which is a bit embarrassing for Irish racing as we seem sure to end up with a very small field by race time on Saturday afternoon. We can take an educated guess that the promising Hit It A Bomb will be a no show as he is said to be heading to the Breeders Cup the following weekend in Kentucky where the prize money is considerably higher. Although second guessing the master of Ballydoyle is an impossible task we are hoping he sends the promising Black Sea (6/4) here as we liked the way he disposed of his rivals last time out at The Curragh with the minimum of fuss, looking like a colt who could be going places in the process. As you would expect, he is bred in the purple as a son of Galileo out of a Lemon Drop Kid mare and entered in all the big races both this year and next, and if he turns out here we can certainly see him winning, and doing so with ease.

Jim Bolger has two entered but will probably rely on Mimicking (20/1) who gets three pounds from the colts and has some decent enough form in her own right.  A maiden win at The Curragh was followed by a second to State Of Emergency at the same venue, though both runs were over the minimum trip of five furlongs and she hasn’t looked as good since being stepped up in trip at both Naas and back at The Curragh and a place is the best connections can realistically hope for here even if most of the O’Brien horses fail to show up.

If there is a serious challenger to the O’Brien domination then Blue De Vega (6/4) could be the one after an impressive win at Naas last time out when he saw off Tribal Beat by close to five lengths in a maiden. With the runner up winning by five lengths next time out himself the form has a better than normal look about it at this early stage, and even a repeat of that run should see him on the scene at the business end of this contest and he is certainly on our “of interest” list while we await the final line up.

Trying to avoid the other O’Brien runners isn’t easy but Agent Of Chaos (12/1) is another in with a decent shout though Aiden should know exactly where he stands. Still a maiden, the son of Bushranger has only raced the once when runner up to Ballydoyle’s highly regarded Hit It A Bomb when running on to be beaten a neck at odds of 50/1, which certainly suggests there is plenty of improvement to come and that he may well have needed the race! If he does improve (and that wasn’t just a fluke result), then he seems sure to be on the scene this afternoon and may even go close to a shock victory, we are just wary that his one race was in a slow time and may well have flattered him and his true abilities.