Ballycashin and Kool One: Top Picks for Gowran Park's 2 1/2 Mile Handicap Hurdle As well as the 2m handicap hurdle at Gowran Park, there is a 2 1/2 mile contest at 4.20 with a field of 11 set to go to post. There’s a mixture of chasers returning to hurdles and young unexposed contenders in the field and, as in the two-mile hurdle, no runners from Ireland’s biggest stables means a wide-open contest. Ground could again be key as most of the best recent form on offer comes on much quicker ground than they are likely to be faced with here. NAP: Ballycashin Next best: Kool One Bally ready to cashin A couple of horses returning from an absence are intriguing to watch having dropped in the weights, with Art Of Silence having had two flat starts since nearly two years out, while Quarry Rocco was in the process of running his best race when returning lame from a Leopardstown hurdle in December 2023. With this contest in mind though, the former’s two flat runs were very underwhelming from a lowly mark, and his best form has come on a decent surface, while it’s concerning that Quarry Rocco’s two runs at this course, albeit on heavy ground, were very poor. The likes of Stormy Judge and From The Ashes might be using this as a pipe-opener before returning to longer trips over fences, so by a process of elimination this could be a good opportunity for BALLYCASHIN to claim her second win. Although she has only won once over hurdles - she also won a bumper - the eight-year-old has run countless good races in all ground conditions and looks sure to run her race. Anna McGuinness has struck up a good partnership with the mare, just failing to get her head home in front in two similar contests on the two occasions she has ridden her including last time at Listowel. The pair were narrowly denied by two upwardly mobile young hurdlers that day and with little of that in opposition today and form on softer ground the mare looks to have a solid chance. Maxwell charge looks Kool A slipped saddle put paid to the chances of Conor Maxwell’s KOOL ONE at Listowel last time, but punters shouldn’t be put off by that and in this much easier contest he has the class to prevail. He was sent off at only 10/1 for that Listed contest after a narrow flat win at Roscommon and a comfortable success in a maiden hurdle at Wexford, for the latter of which he was very kindly left on the same handicap mark. Both of those successes came on good ground, but he ran well when runner-up in a maiden hurdle here and a Grade 3 juvenile hurdle at Naas on soft and heavy at the beginning of this year. Those runs saw him take his place in the Fred Winter at Cheltenham and he was still travelling well and making progress when tipping up two out, all of which form gives him a strong chance in this contest. He can be forgiven a couple of below par runs, one after Cheltenham the other in a flat race at Galway where he was trapped wide, and as long as the step up in trip suits him connections can put last time’s disappointment behind them. Claim The William Hill Free Bet Offer
