23-1 FOLLOWS 50-1 AS DOUBLES ROLL IN:  Shamrock yesterday followed up Monday’s 50-1 double when Wild Wind (nap, WON 5-2) and Crimson Sunrise (WON 6-1) scored in his trio for Day One of the Killarney August Festival at odds of 23.5-1.

LESS THAN A LENGTH ROBS HIM OF TREBLES AT 146-1 AND 139-1: On Monday, a short head cost Shamrock a 139-1 treble when he landed Takeover Bid (WON 16-1) and Wrote (WON 2-1) but Secret Hero was pipped at 7-4. Yesterday, when his two winners rolled on to Magical Cat (2nd 5-1), he missed out on a 146-1 treble by half a length.


4.55 Killarney: John Joseph Murphy (Foreign Princess) is two out of three in this. That’s the Cork trainer not the Fethard one, who saddles Laura’s Delight. Ballydoyle has had two winners in five years, and their Galileo filly, Purple, has the better draw.

But French Quebec and Sandy Wells are the ones with Moyglare entries, and of course French Quebec’s third to the subsequent Phoenix Stakes winner, La Collina, now looks top-notch form.

6.00 Killarney (Kingdom Gold Cup): Three-year-olds have won both previous runnings, each time the winner coming from the bottom end of the handicap, so Joseph O’Brien takes a valuable 3lb off Regent Street.

Regent Street has raced four times at Group level, ever since winning his maiden at Dundalk last December. He wasn’t disgrace in the Ballysax or the Derrinnstown but was out of his depth in the Queens Vase and the Great Voltigeur.

Bondage won at Tipperary in June but Leah Claire has a big pull in the weights with him, though the form is demoted by Bondage’s having finished adrift of Dimona. It must be Regent Street to show his class.

7.00 Killarney: A novice chase that could mark our card for the winter. I venture to suggest that Eagle’s Pass is a little exposed for novice events at age nine but Trendelenburg, who finished in the ruck over hurdles at Galway might bounce back, returned to chasing which he had seemed to enjoy at Kilbeggan. He would be helped by rain.

Slieveardagh and St Devote ran well enough at Galway, and in-form Jessica Harrington’s Paradis De Thaix is better than the bare form.

But the Galway star was Daffern Seal, who looked a natural first time over fences. Compare his potential after three races under Rules with that of Eagle’s Pass after 77 appearances.

SHAMROCK’S BETS
NAP: Regent Street (6.00 Killarney)
NEXT BEST: French Quebec (4.55 Killarney)
DAQ TRIO: French Quebec (4.55 Killarney) Regent Street (6.00 Killarney), Daffern Seal (7.00 Killarney)