Sport

I have to go to make it a double

IN THE jackpot at Bellewstown on Tuesday evening, two of the first three legs went to the favourites, but the runaway success…

Thu Jul 03 1997 - 01:00

IN THE jackpot at Bellewstown on Tuesday evening, two of the first three legs went to the favourites, but the runaway success of 20 to l chance I Have to Go in the Murphy Sand and Gravel Maiden guaranteed a carry forward to last night.

After the race was over, all the form pundits could find good reason why they should have put her in, for she had some very respectable runs last year when she started the season with Declan Gillespie and finished it with Dermot Weld.

For Gillespie, she was a close second to Classical Risk over six furlongs at Navan, while in her best attempt for Weld she ran a creditable sixth to Mosconi in the Pounds 25,000 Birdcatcher Nursery at Naas.

Now that she has lived up to her family - her grandmam Tigerin was the champion German filly of her generation - I Have To Go can notch a repeat course and distance win under a 5lb penalty in the Heineken Handicap at the final Bellewstown session this evening.

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John Murtagh, who rode Kharshani, the runner-up to I Have To Go, partners the Aga Khan's filly Samadriza in the Blooms Hotel Maiden. An older horse to keep an eye on here is Arion, for whom there was some support in a far stronger event at Roscommon won by Damancher.

Bookmakers are unlikely to make the mistake of chalking up any extravagant odds about Dermot Weld's filly Faux Pas in this contest. She showed promise of an early win when fourth to Chania at Leopardstown and may beat Samadriza and Arion.

Sarah Blue, She's Our Mare and Ragglepuss represent three hurdle winners in the Seamus Mulvaney-sponsored hurdle. and while Ragglepuss could prove the pick of that trio, Kayaliyna takes the eye to show further improvement on a progressive third to Mofasa at Wexford.

Bonny, blinkered for the first time, can become the winner with the lowest rating of the year in the Derek Plant Farm Machinery Handicap. At 22 she is rated 102lb plus weight-for-age inferior to Desert King, even if she finished in the mid-division in the spring of last year behind another Budweiser Irish Derby winner, Zagreb.

A Coral betting shop customer in South London placed an unusual rhyming win double yesterday when he put Pounds 500 on Rusedski and Pilsudski to win at the weekend. Pilsudski remains a 3 to 1 chance to win the Coral- Eclipse Stakes and Greg Rusedski is 7 to l to win Wimbledon, so the customer stands to collect Pounds I6,000.