Exchange looks one to beat in Listowel amateur race Exchange Rate could be the answer to the Listowel Races Supporters Club Failte Abhaile (Q.R.) Race on Thursday. The German-bred son of Monsun was unbeaten in his first three starts, but the Galway Festival saw the six-year-old twice emerge with the beaten favourite tag. Willie Mullins’ charge unseated at the opening flight in a novice hurdle on the Tuesday evening, before managing third place behind a couple of stable companions, Calie Du Mesnil and Sapphire Lady, two days later. The champion trainer felt Exchange Rate’s exertions when galloping loose may have taken a toll on his second outing, and also that the extended two-and-a-half-mile trip proved beyond him. The Mee family-owned gelding got back on track with a close second placing in the Kingdom Gold Cup Handicap at Killarney on his most recent appearance and it will be disappointing if he does not return to winning ways under the trainer’s son Patrick, who steered him to his first two career victories. The horse that upstaged Exchange Rate at Killarney, Brazos, tops the weights for the Behans Horseshoe Bar, Restaurant & Townhouse Accommodation Handicap. John Murphy trains Brazos and he also has Emperor Waltz in the mix for this one-mile-six-furlong contest. Tony Martin is double-handed as well, with the John Breslin-owned pair of Mr Everest (Robbie Colgan) and Upgraded (Colin Keane) both featuring in a 10-strong field. Well-known tenor singer Dr Ronan Tynan sees his colours carried by the previously unraced Lady Maritime in the MAC Fuels & General Supplies Fillies Maiden. The Henry de Bromhead-trained three-year-old is not the only runner with an owner famous in a different walk of life either. Michael Dunphy, the man behind the famed Droopys greyhound prefix, is like all in the canine world, currently fixed on happenings at Shelbourne Park as the Irish Derby nears its conclusion. However, the Waterford man will also be watching Maajmeh Dawn here, as Gary Carroll dons his green and blue silks on the Gavin Cromwell-trained Dawn Approach filly.
