DAILY RACING PREVIEW BY ANDY HOLDING
SUNDAY MAY 17
1.56 NAAS
Aidan O’Brien clearly holds a strong hand in the opening rated race for three-year-olds, but it is easy to argue LATIN AMERICA has the strongest form next to his name and he rates the percentage call at the morning odds to upset the applecart.
Like his main market rivals, he has just had the two runs and following a promising effort at The Curragh, the son of Gleneagles he duly found the necessary improvement to get off the mark at the second time of asking.
Soon handy from a wide draw, Johnny Murtagh’s colt worked himself into a challenging position turning for home and once drawing level with the leaders two out, he gradually drew clear of his rivals up the hill to the line.
Posting a useful speed figure in the process, the race gathered pace as far as solid form is concerned with both Genchev (runner-up) and Santa Bravado (seventh) winning at Navan yesterday and with all roads pointing heavily towards him continuing to progress with each run, Latin America should keep Shaftesbury Avenue honest at the very least.
LATIN AMERICA – 1-point win@4-1
5.26 NAAS
Mission Central made a bright start to his campaign and many will expect him to continue to work his way through the ranks, using today’s contest as a stepping stone, but whether there deserves to be such a discrepancy in the betting between him and LIKEDBYMIKE based on their recent exploits is open to question and Michael Byrne’s filly makes plenty of sense from an each-way perspective.
Unlike her more illustrious counterpart, the daughter of Inns Of Court was slowly into stride at the Kildare venue and at halfway, she was still fully five or six lengths off the main players.
However, she came home quickest of all from two out to finish a never-nearer second and it came as no surprise to see her final three-furlong splits of 33.0 by some way the best (Mision Command 33.4).
On the evidence of that effort, she clearly has every right to be contesting races of this nature and with a smoother exit from the gates, the improving four-year-old is at the head of the queue to cause an upset.
LIKEDBYMILE – 1-point each-way@7-1 (four places)