Race In Focus: 4.00 Dundalk

Formerly a turf racecourse which was mainly used for National Hunt purposes, Dundalk officially closed in 2001 and was reopened with an all-weather track (Polytrack surface) back in 2007.

The venue hosts two Group 3 races in October, namely the Diamond and Mercury Stakes, along with the Listed Patton Stakes, which was run last month. As long as coronavirus does not halt the Irish schedule, we will have tips for all of the upcoming Irish action available daily on our free horse racing tips page.

We have Dundalk tips for all eight races on Friday’s card currently live onsite, whilst below, we have taken a closer look at one of tomorrow’s feature races, the Crowne Plaza Dundalk Race & Stay Handicap – which sees over €7,000 in prize money going to the winner.

Dundalk Specialist Coakley Represented By Popular Veteran

Regular Dundalk punters will know that the man to follow at the County Louth venue in recent years has been Denis Coakley.

He may have just a couple of horses in training at present, but that hasn’t stopped Coakley from racking up a healthy 27% strike-rate with his runners at Dundalk in the last five seasons.

He is represented here by the admirable Park Row, who is bidding for a seventh course victory.

The ten-year-old may now be over a year without a win, but as a result, he has slipped eight pounds below his last winning mark and a recent course outing should have blown away any cobwebs.

Seeing Double With Joseph O’Brien

Joseph O’Brien endured a slightly frustrating Cheltenham Festival, but his Dundalk runners have provided him with some comfort recently – with O’Brien landing a 6/1 double at this venue just last week.

He has the two entries in this contest – Tonkinese and Irradiate – and at the time of writing the market is finding it hard to split the two.

Tonkinese was a close third here on his penultimate outing, but he failed to build on that effort when a beaten favourite last time out – finishing three and a half lengths behind the reopposing Cautious Approach.

Irradiate, therefore, may be O’Brien’s strongest chance of success.

The four-year-old daughter of Australia is effective at trips of up to two miles, so will not fail for stamina, and rider Mikey Sheehy has been profitable to follow at Dundalk in recent years – with his mounts +33.75 to a £1 stake.

Myracing Analysis

Five-year-old mare CAUTIOUS APPROACH has strong claims of a fifth course win here. She stayed on gamely under O’Connor to score over track and trip in February prior to a narrow defeat from this mark. The in-form apprentice is back onboard, claiming three, and the O’Brien stable are starting to hit top form.