Jamie Spencer will not have the chance to land his second classic of the season following Tommy Stack's decision to keep Tarascon for the Sussex Stakes and not run her in Sunday's Kildangan Stud Irish Oaks. However, while the nine-furlong maiden at Tipperary this evening is hardly in the same league, Stack looks set to supply the young apprentice with the winner of it in the shape of Hallucination.
To share that belief, it is necessary to ignore the Last Tycoon filly's last run but that was too bad to be believable and she looks well worth forgiving.
That flop came at Gowran Park when Hallucination started a wellbacked favourite for a handicap but started her remorseless trip to the back of the field early in the straight and finished up last of the 15 runners.
It was easy to see why she started favourite though as her only other run was when beaten by just two short heads by Desert Fox and Razik over tonight's course and distance in May.
Of course a literal reading of that form with Desert Fox would be unwise but Hallucination still looks to have her measure of talent and this opposition is hardly awe inspiring.
Spencer is also fancied to go close in the apprentice handicap where he rides the low-weight Female Lead. This filly was backed from 33 to 1 down to 14 to 1 for a handicap at the Curragh over Derby weekend and didn't run at all badly to finish fourth to Pas Possible.
Female Lead led half a mile out that day and it was only in the last furlong that she faded slightly. She stays well and is taken to beat Shanid and Crystal Springs.
That same Derby weekend, Joe Canty's Frisky ran a nice race over a mile to be eighth to Heemanela. There looks to be a race in Frisky and the seven furlongs of the Eve's Handicap should suit. The presence of Shane Kelly on her back, taking 5lb off, can only help too.
Over the jumps, it's hard to get away from Pat Flynn's Cochis Run in the first division of the maiden hurdle. He should strip a lot fitter than his last race at Clonmel while in the second division, Willie Mullins's River Cora is taken to beat the smart flat handicapper, Sharp Scotch.
Fran Berry's mount Bobsanna is just preferred in the handicap hurdle while Tom Foley's Laylann was a fast finisher last time out and looks the pick in the bumper.
Bertolini produced a supercharged turn of foot at Newmarket yesterday to get Frankie Dettori out of jail. The former champion jockey appeared to leave the colt with a colossal task in the TNT International Aviation July Stakes. With just over one furlong to travel, Bertolini was still last and trapped behind a wall of horses. But switched to the outside, the 3 to 1 chance scythed through the opposition.
