Remastered stands out

THE Dublin Racing Festival at Leopardstown takes centre stage this weekend, but trying to work out what is going to run at this stage is remarkably difficult, so I make no apologies for focusing on the British action.

I’m more of a handicap punter than one to get involved at short prices in Grade 1s – and there will be a fair few of those anyway – and it should be easier to get a runner in Britain.

This is the time of year when Irish trainers tend to make entries in Britain with next to no intention of having a runner, and there are six Irish entries in the Virgin Bet Heroes Handicap Hurdle at Sandown, five of them trained by Gordon Elliott.

The most interesting of those is obviously Maxxum, who shares favouritism with stablemate Favori De Champdou with Hills at 5-1, although other firms are offering twice that price.

Personally I wouldn’t take the 10s about them running, particularly Maxxum, who ran away with a Pertemps qualifier when last seen and is surely in here just for Elliott to find out what handicap mark he’ll get from the BHA assessor. He went up from 120 to 138 in Ireland and is 4-1 favourite for the Pertemps Final, but we now know he’ll have to defy a mark of 145 at Cheltenham.

Both he and Favori De Champdou, who is unbeaten in three this season, also have entries at Leopardstown, and the Irish raider most likely to turn up is the Charles Byrnes-trained Grozni.

The very name Charles Byrnes tends to strike fear into the hearts of British bookies, so there’s no surprise his seven-year-old is among the market leaders, but Grozni isn’t exactly unexposed, having run 14 times over hurdles, and only scrambled home in a novice at Leicester on his latest start, so he doesn’t make much appeal anyway.

Indeed, he is also in a Pertemps qualifier at Musselburgh on Sunday and a race at Leopardstown, so he is no certainty to line up.

I’m just going to ignore all of them and focus on the Brits, and the one who stands out here is surely Remastered for David Pipe.

The ten-year-old has been in the form of his life this season, running a half-length second to Le Milos in the Coral Gold Cup and then winning by a commanding four and three-quarter lengths at Kempton over Christmas.

Remastered earned a 10lb rise over hurdles for his opening run of the season at Aintree, where he ran out an easy winner over 3m, but he’s gone up that much over fences since as well and his hurdles mark remains 10lb lower than his chase rating.

He wasn’t given an entry in the Grand National Trial at Haydock, so this could well be his last run before a possible tilt at the Grand National itself, and it is certainly a winnable race.

The one to beat is probably Flight Deck, who won with a bit to spare when last seen at Chepstow and has obviously improved since he failed to finish behind Remastered at

Aintree in November. He’s very talented when he gets things right, but even trainer Jonjo O’Neill said he can’t be sure when that will be, so I can leave him alone at the price.

Of the others, Lossiemouth would be of interest if fit after a long layoff. His only defeat last season was in the Grade 1 Challow Hurdle when fifth to Stage Star, and he’d been busy enough as that was his fourth run in the space of a couple of months.

It was also his last, though, and returning to action in a seriously competitive handicap is not going to be easy. On the upside, the handicapper has dropped him 6lb since that run and he’s been given a fair chance based on his best form, which came at Sandown in the Grade 2 Winter Novices’ Hurdle.