The Listowel track may be pancake flat and on the turn but the winner of today`s £80,000 Guinness Kerry National will need to stay. And stamina is what Super Franky has lots of.
The Charles Byrnes-trained horse will be ridden for the first time by Paul Carberry and comes here on the back of a success on the flat at Clonmel. But as befits a National, it`s toughness that will count for most on the very soft ground.
Toughness for Super Franky can be taken as read because the fact he is here in such good form is a tribute to him as well as Byrnes. Not many horses would have bounced back so readily from an unhappy Galway Plate experience where he was a well backed favourite but finished in respiratory distress.
Super Franky will need all his fortitude against 12 opponents that include a pair of raiders trying to gain a first British trained success in the race. However, the best form of Mac`s Supreme and Laazim Afooz appears to be on a more sound surface than they will get in north Kerry.
Michael Hourigan has won the race twice before with topweights (Dorans Pride in 1997 and Deep Bramble in 1993), so even with 12st the Paddy Power Chase winner, Inis Cara, cannot be ruled out; while last year`s winning Lanturn team of Pat Hughes and Philip Carberry are represented by Duinin.
The Galway Plate runner-up Montys Pass has over 15 lengths to make up on The Dell on later Ballybrit running but could well do it on this ground. The problem with Jimmy Mangan`s horse, however, might be the trip.
Super Franky, in contrast, is a proven stayer on this track and his ability to race from near or at the front is valuable around here. Like most of these, he won`t particularly like the going but he has won on soft ground before,
The drop back to the two miles of the Mulvaney Handicap Chase could do the trick for the locally trained and Carberry-ridden Dia- mond Melody; and Charlie Swan looks a significant booking for Vanilla Man in the conditions hurdle.
There may be only five runners in the opener but it`s an intriguing contest. Mutakarrim is on a four-timer but could be inconvenienced by the ground. It`s the trip that`s a slight worry with Hill Port, but anyone who saw him bolt up by nine lengths on bad ground at Tralee will have to fancy him. Hill Port`s subsequent poor run at Downpatrick can be put down to fast going he encountered then.
