Johnny Ward's Irish Angle: Dylan can be a Down Royal delight

Down Royal was stunned yesterday as Samcro suffered a heavy defeat in the feature race, with few obvious excuses forthcoming.

The sight of him failing to pick up left many punters forlorn. Perhaps he will leave this form behind; certainly, it was really disappointing.

We must go again and a cracking weekend's fare continues with Down Royal's main day rolling into Cork's major meet of the year and the Flat season's finale at Naas.

Saturday selections:

Couer Sublime won a maiden on the Flat over 1m2f and was promptly snapped up by the Gordon Elliott/Chris Jones axis.

They previously had a fine juvenile in the shape of Mega Fortune, who sadly met his end last year, and they could have a classy Triumph Hurdle prospect in Coeur Sublime.

He has been given time to mature and looks the one to beat.

Freewheelin Dylan could be hard to beat here with Liam Gilligan’s 7lb claim key in a race of this nature.

He jumped and travelled well at Gowran last time, just touched off behind Cecil Corbett, and this is not an especially strong race. As a six-year-old, he is one of the few in this who is on the up.

Malone Road was trained in County Antrim by Stuart Crawford but it was decided that the horse would be sold after he won his point-to-point. He was purchased by Cheveley Park Stud, no less, for a huge sum.

We don’t know how good he is, or might be, but the standard set by Buck’sbillionaire and Valdieu is nothing out of the ordinary. Gordon Elliott knows what is required here, having initially trained Valdieu.

Sunday selections:

With the rain forecast at Naas, conditions may not suit recent course eye-catcher Ferretti, nor Antilles, his stablemate.

Majority Share is worth risking off his low mark. The Born To Sea filly was favourite on her second start at Gowran after a promising debut on testing ground but was too keen and did not get home.

That was again this the case at Dundalk but dropping back to 7f just may make the difference.

Perfect Tapatino is a course winner who has thrived for Joseph O’Brien and, while this is a tough ask from his high draw, he may have the potential to progress a bit more over 1m6f.

He seemed unlucky not to win at Leopardstown last time, the steady pace against him and he just failed to reel in the front-running winner.

Alan Persse seeks his biggest win and the chances are he has more progress in him than most of these.

King’s War ran an extraordinary race at Clonmel last time, looking all but tailed off at one stage under a rider not getting too vigorous, only to flash home.

He probably needs to be ridden a bit more forcefully here, but he could be well-handicapped. In addition, he ran an excellent race when second to Deor in a maiden hurdle at this track last year.