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Colin Keane on Medicine Jack (centre) wins the Naas Racecourse Launches The 2018 Flat Season Handicap last time out. Lorraine O'Sullivan/INPHO

We've found the cure in feature race, it's Medicine

Listed races like these at tracks like Navan will be Medicine Jack’s bread and butter.

THERE ARE A whole host of course specialists in the 5f handicap (2.15) at Navan, many of whom could make their way to the track blindfolded and will no doubt reappear at the venue time and time again over the next six months, but it could be worth looking to one of the least exposed sprinters in the field.

Heavenly Rainbow is a three-year-old, only having his sixth start, and could prosper in sprint handicaps this season now that he has been gelded.

He made a winning debut in a Fairyhouse maiden last May and, although he didn’t win afterwards, his close-up third in a Curragh nursery off 79 was a solid effort and gives him decent each-way credentials in a contest full of exposed performers who have few secrets from the handicapper.

The Listed Cork Stakes (2.50) is a seriously competitive affair with Sergei Prokoviev and Son Of Rest the standout names in the 16-runner field, but the one who could prove decent value is Medicine Jack.

The five-year-old really shouldn’t be winning this given that he is giving weight away to horses rated much higher than him but now could be the time to catch Medicine Jack.

He won first time out at Naas last season, beating Smash Williams and Son Of Rest (fifth), and is two from two at Navan, including a Listed race on his final start at four. Ger Lyons has started the campaign on the front foot and he could be overpriced.

It looks like many of his rivals who will be using this as a stepping stone for bigger tests later in the season but this is a cup final for Medicine Jack. Listed races like these at tracks like Navan will be his bread and butter so expect him to be finely tuned for his reappearance.

There doesn’t appear to be anything hiding in the long grass in the 1m5f handicap (3.25) so it could be worth chancing an a small each-way wager on Mystique Heights who looks capable of winning a contest like this off a mark of 62.

He was fourth to Mr Everest in a much hotter heat than this at Listowel on September off a mark of 66 so must go close off 4lb lower. He’s fit from hurdling too.

Saturday’s Tips

Heavenly Rainbow – 2.15 Navan

Medicine Jack – 2.50 Navan

Mystique Heights – 3.25 Navan  

Murray Kinsella and Bernard Jackman look ahead to a huge weekend for the provinces in Europe and Ryan Bailey catches up with Ian Keatley on the latest episode of The42 Rugby Weekly:


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