1:40 Fairyhouse – BRANDY LOVE (11/8) – 1pt Win – Our third bet of the day comes in the Solerina Mares Novice Hurdle and it is a cracking race. Over the years this contest has been won by some highly precocious mares. Willie Mullins favourites have an overall record of 5 wins from 7 runs and as a standard rule, if he trains the fav and it wins then you can be confident that the horse will probably head to Cheltenham and win the Dawn Run as well. As far as BRANDY LOVE is concerned, she has been on most people’s radars since winning her PTP back in February 2020. She bolted up that day with ease and put 10 lengths between herself and the field including BRAVE KINGDOM (finished 3rd). Following that win she moved to Willie’s yard and won a Fairyhouse bumper in December (A race won by COLREEVY in 2017) before finishing 3rd in the Champion Bumper at Leopardstown. Although she was beaten that day by GRANGEE and PARTY CENTRAL (both re-oppose today) I don’t think there was any doubt that she was the horse that caught the eye. She travelled enthusiastically throughout, and you could just sense that she would be a totally different proposition when they put a hurdle in front of her and that proved to be the case. Having been off since February she returned in December at Naas in a maiden hurdle and absolute destroyed her opposition. It wasn’t the winning margin or the way she travelled that was the most impressive thing to me, it was the way she jumped. It didn’t matter how Paul approached a flight, she corrected her stride and 99% of the time she landed running and quickened away giving her opposition virtually no chance of giving her a race, let alone beating her. Today’s race obviously poses a bigger challenge as she is facing a field of Ireland’s top young mares. Her two stablemates, ALLEGORIE DE VASSY and GRANGEE are well above average and the former actually heads the market currently for the Dawn Run but for the time being, I am prepared to treat BRANDY LOVE like a top class mare and a future Cheltenham winner and therefore I wouldn’t put anyone off backing her anti-post today (NRNB) for the Dawn Run because if she does go and win this comfortably she will no doubt be propelled to the head of that market in the blink of an eye.
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