Spillane’s Tower returns to action over hurdles at Naas on Sunday en route towards a potentially pivotal winter campaign over fences.
Jimmy Mangan’s star looked a prime Gold Cup prospect on his first start of last season when splitting no less than Fact To File and Galopin Des Champs in a memorable John Durkan Chase finish.
However, a season that initially promised so much failed to deliver for the JP McManus runner.
A lacklustre effort in the King George was followed by just one other race when runner up to Galopin at the Punchestown Festival.
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In between, unsuitable ground conditions kept getting in the way and McManus’s new Gold Cup hero Inothewayurthinkin, the Ryanair winner Fact To File, and even the novice Majborough, inevitably stole his thunder.
Nevertheless, Spillane’s Tower is a 9/2 second-favourite for Haydock’s Betfair Chase in a fortnight and this weekend’s €45,000 SIS Brown Lad Handicap Hurdle might tee him up for that.
During the week, Britain’s top Gold Cup contender Haiti Couleurs scored over hurdles at Newbury and may be headed to Haydock himself.
Spillane’s Tower runs off a mark of 130 on Sunday, over two-stone lower than his steeplechase rating. He hasn’t run over flights for two and a half years but that sort of mark should be exploitable for a horse that could still make it at the top level over fences.
Just a handful line up for the Grade Three Barberstown Castle Chase, a two-mile contest that might set Champ Kiely on a Gold Cup campaign of his own.
A Grade One winner at the Punchestown Festival, Champ Kiely has to concede weight all-round over the minimum trip and on figures Inthepocket may prove tough to beat. Gavin Cromwell’s mare Only By Night, on her first start for Robcour, is another prime contender.
Paul Townend’s three rides on Sunday include teaming up with Michael O’Callaghan’s Positive Energy in a novice hurdle. The 119-rated performer won the first of two starts over flights last season and the champion jockey’s booking is an encouraging sign.
In other news, the focus is resolutely on National Hunt racing for some time to come, but there’s still Europe’s final Group One contest of 2025 to get out of the way on Sunday.
The Grosser Allianz Preis Von Bayren is run in Munich at 2.40pm Irish time and was won in 2021 by no less than the subsequent Arc winner Alpinista.
The 2023 winner Junko from Andre Fabre’s yard is one of nine lining up this time while Alpinista’s trainer Mark Prescott sends last year’s runner up Tiffany back for another crack at it.
The most interesting runner of the lot though is Convergent, one of a trio of three-year-olds, who has been given a late shot at graduating to the top level.
Owned by Maurice Regan of Newtown Anner Stud, Convergent recently won a Group Two at Longchamp that trainer Karl Burke presumed would be the colt’s final start of the season.
“We gave him a very easy week after France and in my mind we were going to put him away. But Maurice Regan, his owner, has got the mare and the family and didn’t want to give up the chance of winning a Group One if I thought the horse was well and I couldn’t put him off running as he is really well.
“He’s bounced out of the French race and he goes there with a great chance if he travels over well. I think he’s a proper Group One horse for next year, that was always in my mind, and we’ll give it a go,” Burke said.
William Buick steps in to ride the colt in place of the injured Clifford Lee.
