Fear And Greed preferred

What would have been a reasonable enough Cork card has been boosted by the transfer of the Group Three Coolmore Concorde Stakes…

What would have been a reasonable enough Cork card has been boosted by the transfer of the Group Three Coolmore Concorde Stakes from Thursday's abandoned Tipperary fixture.

Dermot Weld's Major Force had looked a stand out bet for this race but he will now go directly for the Group One Prix de la Foret at Longchamp.

Weld explained yesterday: "The postponement means that the Concorde is now too close to the Foret. We just don't have enough time and the travelling to Cork was also a factor considering he will be flying to France next week."

Instead Weld, who won this with Two-Twenty-Two last year, relies on Tarry Flynn who he describes as a "very good replacement." Wizard King was a dual winner of this contest in 1996 and '97 and Britain is represented this time by Late Night Out, fifth in a Listed race at Newbury last time out.

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That level of form, however, doesn't look up to landing the prize and in a probable battle among the home team Fear And Greed is selected to make a winning return to action.

Tommy Stack has been a most welcome presence on the racetracks recently and success for this filly would be very popular. There are reasonable grounds for assuming it can happen too.

For one, she will be fresh not having raced since the Irish 1,000 Guineas in May. She is also a proven topflight performer having run second to Edabiya in the Moyglare last year and she is also the subject of positive reports recently.

Against that, Fear And Greed does have some very decent opposition including the top rated Tarry Flynn, Show Me The Money who ran on eye-catchingly well in an Ascot Group race recently and Artistic Blue who is now starting to fulfil her potential.

However, in a tightly competitive race, Fear And Greed is a value selection to edge them all out.

The other big money pot on offer is the £30,000 Goffs Autumn Bonus which has attracted two cross-channel raiders, but victory should go to Desert Sky.

Brian O'Connor

Brian O'Connor

Brian O'Connor is the racing correspondent of The Irish Times. He also writes the Tipping Point column