The winner of this race 12-months ago under Frankie Dettori, FALCON EIGHT is back to defend his crown and looks to have been carefully laid out for this race by Dermot Weld. Although this won’t be an easy task on a mark of 109, he carried top weight to win this race in 2021 and is only 5lbs higher than for that success. He has mixed both codes since last year’s win and has a much more favourable draw in stall 6 than when drawn wider in stall 10 a year ago.He had a very difficult passage through the race last year, but was expertly guided through the field by Frankie Dettori, who has a 19% strike rate at the track overall. Last seen finishing 3rd over hurdles at Fairyhouse at the start of this month, he travelled extremely strongly in that race in a manner that would suggest he is fit and well and possibly in better form than 12-months ago, when he won this after a break. He makes a lot of each-way appeal in this field.
