‘She could be thrown in’ – Aidan O’Brien horse runs off a mark of 66 at Fairyhouse 🤔

It’s not all that often that Aidan O’Brien has runners in handicap company and it’s even rarer that they run off a mark in the 60s. O’Brien is set to have a runner in a handicap at Fairyhouse on Thursday who’ll be racing off 66. This is his lowest rated handicap runner in almost a year, since Lost ran off a mark of 59 at Leopardstown last June. Another beautifully bred Balllydoyle inmate, the horse in question is out of a Group 1 winner and she could be thrown in here. Check out our free tips page for daily content across British and Irish racing.

5.30 Fairyhouse

Red Carpet has an excellent pedigree, being out of 6f Group 1 winner Quiet Reflection and by one of the best sires in history, Galileo. With that in mind, it’s a surprise that she’s been so disappointing in her three starts so far. She only made one start as a two-year-old last season and she finished twelfth of 14 runners over 7f at Dundalk.

O’Brien’s filly made her seasonal debut over the same trip at Cork in April and was beaten by a similar distance to her debut, despite finishing fifth. Her most recent effort when upped to an extended 1m1f  Gowran earlier this month was bitterly disappointing and she probably deserves her rating of 66 on that evidence.

There’s always hope that the switch to handicap company will suit. If finding some improvement here, she could be much better than this mark. Aidan O’Brien is one of the finest trainers of all-time and if anyone can get her to win, it’ll be him. It also helps that O’Brien is operating at a 37 per cent strike-rate in the last fortnight.

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