This Weekend’s Irish National Hunt Tips at Curragh and Listowel

This horse made a promising debut at Cork on debut in August when he raced very green, but he learned plenty from that experience before making no mistake at the second time of asking at Down Royal about three weeks ago. Those two efforts were over five furlongs, and the headgear applied last time looked to really focus the mind and help him put his best foot forward. He steps up to six furlongs here and I don't foresee that to be an issue.

He's a well-built scopey individual with a high cruising speed and if he can take another step forward from last time, he should go very close here. I'm confident of a big run.

This is a horse I've always liked from the day he made his debut in a point to point. He always appealed to me as a horse with more than his fair share of ability. He's a bumper winner around Tramore from November 2023 on soft to heavy ground and he hacked up in Killarney about four weeks ago on good ground. He's a real free front running type who loves to jump and I can see him leading his rivals a merry dance here if he gets loose on the lead and he has a very astute front running jockey on his back in the shape of Danny Mullins.

He should have no problem with the trip and all ground comes the same to him. I hope this son of Jet Away can put his best foot forward here again and if he does, he will be very difficult to beat!

This horse was a Grade Three Novice Hurdle winner in the spring of 2022, and he looked at the time to be a horse with a really promising future, but that autumn he went novice chasing which he never took to for as much as a second and it seemed to really dent his confidence. He's dropped from a career hight of 139 to 130 now with Callum Hogan booked to take off an extra 7lbs. The Eric McNamara yard always targets the Listowel harvest festival and more importantly does quite well when getting horses in a similar ilk to Highland Charge.

He goes well fresh and from an attractive mark with a nice racing weight he could make his presence felt at a big price!