NAP of the Day: Shannon Royale to take big step forward at Thurles

There’s a fascinating race involving two potentially high-class novice hurdlers at Thurles on Thursday – and I’ve picked one of them to as my NAP of the Day.

There’s no doubt that Willie Mullins’ Lecky Watson has a bright future. He was second in three good bumpers between April-December last year, before a fantastic fourth in the big one at the Cheltenham Festival – and then he finished fifth in a decent contest at the Punchestown a month later.

However, this looks a tough start over hurdles. It’s currently soft ground at Thurles with further rain forecast, and this keen-going sort is immediately tried over 2m7f against fellow promising types.

One of those is Gordon Elliott’s Shannon Royale, who will have no issues with conditions and shapes like he’ll relish the step-up in trip.

I know for a fact the five-year-old son of Walk In The Park, who set connections back £300,000, is highly-regarded at Cullentra, and that those involved were disappointed with his debut over flights at Fairyhouse last month, when a well-beaten second to the 107-rated Skradin.

That’s hard to package up positively, I must admit, but in a recent stable tour Elliott has said not to read too much into the performance as he “badly needed it and will come on plenty for it.” It’s also worth noting he was conceding nearly a stone to the winner, who set the fractions in front.

Marked improvement is exactly what happened in-between the selection’s two bumpers last season. Those efforts were like chalk and cheese, so I’m hopeful we’ll see a much better Shannon Royale on Thursday.

He’s got an 8lb penalty to contend with, which certainly isn’t ideal, but it’s not enough to put me off this potentially exciting individual opening his account over obstacles at the second attempt.

Of his other seven rivals, I would give a chance to both Cato’s Revenge and Secrecies Of Stone – but ultimately I make it a match between the two at the head of the market.

Check out my NAP of the Day here at Betfred Insights throughout the week