Racing tips: The inform Keith Donoghue is an eye catching jockey for Battle Away

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The right call was made at Fakenham after calling the meeting off after the first race. Two horses slipped around the bend and it could've been nasty. Gavin Sheehan said it was like an ice rink out there, and the last thing we want is casualties of jockeys or horses.

With the British jumps meetings likely to be called off, or they have a strong possibility of being called off from the expected heavy rainfall in the early hours of Thursday morning, my attention is at Thurles as I don't think it's worth my time studying two cards which might be abandoned.

Thurles 12:55 – Battle Away 15/2 (0.5pt EW)

Beginners Chases are always difficult to weigh up, but on all known form this looks like a fairly poor race. Those with chase experience don't seem to be great and those who are making their chase debuts don't have any real substance to their hurdles form to suggest they'll be making big inroads over fences.

The one which stood out to me in this field was Battle Away for the Ross O'Sullivan yard. This 10yo mare is lightly raced over fences but looks a good enough jumper to win a race of this quality. Ross has pitched her into some better races than this on her chase races like the run last time out at today's track which was won by an Emmet Mullins horse, and a few others will have a future over fences. Battle Away showed a good aptitude for fences that day, she jumped well and did little wrong other than being outclassed.

Ross won this race in back-to-back years in 2018 and 2019, he has two runners into today's race which are the only two he's had since winning back in 2019, but Battle Away looks like a stand-out contender with arguably the most inform jockey in Ireland & UK, Keith Donoghue taking the ride. Keith has a very good record when riding for Ross: 5 wins from 25 runs all time and 3/8 for him this season, clearly looking like the go-to man when he wants a job doing.

Thurles 3:50 – Secrecies Of Stone 9/1 (0.5pt EW)

The top two in the market at there for a reason as they have the best bumper form from the last 12 months but the Mullins horse is stepping up in trip on seasonal reappearance and the Elliott horse was beaten at 30/100F by a bang average horse and it wasn't even close, so I'm willing to take them on with Paul Nolan's Secrecies Of Stone.

Similar to Shannon Royale, my selection might've needed the run last time out, but either way I'd still say being beaten by 14L into third behind Tag Man is much better form that the Elliott horse on both of their comeback runs. Paul Nolan isn't a mug and he normally has a handful of decent novice hurdlers and I think this one could be decent, especially now he's match fit and going up to a more suitable trip. He probably would've won his 2nd PTP run if he didn't fall late on in that race, so we know he stays this trip and we know he will handle the surface well enough.

If the Mullins horse is fit he'll be very tough to beat as he was 4th in the Champion bumper, but we see short-priced favourites getting turned over, especially on their hurdle/chase debuts so the 9/1 on Secrecies Of Stone seems like a no brainer as an EW bet to nothing as I think he is better than the others in the field is the front two in the market don't run to what is expected of them.

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