Clonmel a 'good opportunity' for Irish Panther The 128-rated Irish Panther makes his seasonal reappearance in the Crottys Lake Maiden Hurdle at Clonmel today, a race in which he trades at long odds-on. The Lucarno gelding was last seen finishing third in a valuable handicap hurdle at the Punchestown Festival. Prior to that, he was 10th in the County Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival and third in another quality handicap hurdle at the Dublin Racing Festival in Leopardstown. Eddie Harty, who saddled a winner at Navan on Wednesday under the joint licence with his son Patrick, said: "He has very strong form. He will be favourite and he should be favourite. "He's in good form. "Third in Punchestown, third in the DRF. County Hurdle just didn't pan out for him. Every time you go to the County Hurdle, you know they are going to go a million miles an hour. They crawled and we were holding him up, and it just didn't work out. "He's still a maiden, so we want him to lose that tag. It looks like a good opportunity tomorrow."
