RACING/Naas preview: It might not be Royal Ascot but a success for Snippets in tonight's Noblesse Stakes at Naas would feel almost as significant for the Jim Bolger-Kevin Manning team.
It has been a desperately slow season so far for both with Bolger, the former champion trainer, languishing in ninth place in the trainer's table with just six winners.
Manning has had one more winner but still figures at joint 10th in the jockeys' championship. However, Snippets could signal a change of fortune in this Listed race. Denied a run in the Epsom Oaks through illness, the Be My Guest filly is proven on the forecast "good to firm" ground and was running on nicely at the end of her last start in the Cheshire Oaks.
That third placing to Hammiya looks like pretty good form but Snippets will have to be at the top of her game to cope with Miss Nashwan and a quartet of fillies from the John Oxx yard.
Bolger and Manning can warm up for the big race with a success in the opener via Il Pirata. A third to Steel Light and Wathab on his debut was not a bad effort and although there is a question mark over an Indian Ridge colt on fast going, Il Pirata is preferred to the Storm Cat newcomer Day Of That Cat.
Mac Han and Wimbledon renew course and distance rivalry from earlier in the month in the mile handicap but on the going it might be worth taking a chance with Carlesimo. Fran Berry's mount has significant placing form on a fast surface, and that ability to act on the going could also be significant for Royal Bart in the handicap hurdle.
