Racing tips: Front-running Zarinsk looks up the task of today’s Group 2 assignment

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I mentioned on my Twitter that the weather forecasts have been the most inaccurate I've seen in the last month, in the time I've been betting on horse racing. Catterick was deemed to be ‘soft' yesterday and was expecting a few mm of rain at the very least, but somehow the ground was good at the time of racing. That gave my selection no chance and was picked solely because the ground would be testing, which it clearly wasn't. 

The Aidan O'Brien debutante was slow away and raced in the smaller of the two groups, which is the never ideal setup when they decide to split into groups. She ran okay, but I did expect more from her in what I deemed to be a weak Class 1 race. Maybe she might be better with the experience, maybe she needs better ground, only time will tell, but at 3/1 I thought the risk what worth it, and she was backed into 6/4F so the money around did symbolise that she was going there with a very good chance.

Leopardstown 5:47 – Islandsinthestream 9/4 (1pt Bet365)

Taking on Aidan O'Brien 2yo's is always a risky tactic, as they breed the best horses in the business but I don't think his pair of horses are anywhere near the best he has in the yard and they can be taken on.

The one I liked was his son's horse, Joseph's Islandsinthestream. He broke slow out of the gates on debut, was held up off the pace at the Curragh but made could progress down the outside and won by a length. I thought that was a pleasing effort considering he was weak in the market, going off at 9/1, didn't get the ideal of starts to his career with his being slow out of the gates and I thought he showed a lot of character to come from the position her did to win. He is by Wootton Bassett who is becoming one of the best sires around, he is starting to produce some quality horses on a regular basis now and this one could be fairly smart as well.

Having a slow start will not be ideal from stall 2 as it's going to be a watch-through-your-hands moment as horses do meet plenty of trouble in running when penned in on the rail at Leopardstown, so I'm hoping for a good break and to sit prominently, which will probably be behind Mountain Bear, who didn't manage to get to the front at Newmarket which was their gameplan, so I think they'll want to get him on the lead and prove his poor run at Newmarket wasn't his true showing. Hopefully, Declan can get him settled nicely behind Ryan's horse and he take him on in the final furlong or two.

Leopardstown 6:22 – Zarinsk 11/4 (1pt)

My original bet in this race was Honey Girl, as this race was intended to be run at the Curragh on the weekend just gone but the track became waterlogged so the meeting was cancelled. Zarinsk wasn't in the race when it was at the Curragh, so it's interesting to see that she's been entered now it's changed to Leopardstown.

Zarinsk was a previous winning tip on her last start at Fairyhouse when she carried a penalty to give the Group 3 field a proper beating from the front. She is a very dangerous horse if given an easy lead of things on the front end, she has such a high cruising speed and turn of foot she can get horses out of their comfort zones quite quickly. I think they like their chances in this race now it's at Leopardstown as she is proven at this track, loves running around a bend due to her front-running style. Getting the lead from stall 10 will be a difficult task, but she is normally electric out of the gates so that gives Colin every chance of getting to the rail and stacking them up in behind. She was in stall 7 of 8 at Fairyhouse and that didn't give her any problems, so I'd like to think the same can happen today.

This is a step up in grade for this horse, but based on what she's shown this season, she looks more than capable of running another career best and grabbing a Group 2 victory by the side of her CV.

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