Galway Plate 2006

Ansar is bound to give it a real good go when bidding for his third successive victory in the Galway Plate on Wednesday and it's little surprise that he's a top-priced 11/2 with Stan James, but as short as 4/1 with Ladbrokes. The ten-year-old has been campaigned meticulously by Demot Weld over the last couple of seasons. Weld has no peers when it comes to preparing his horses with a long term objective in mind and, following an eyecatching effort on the level at The Curragh on July 2 when a staying-on third of 29 behind Zeroberto, the son of Kahyasi should once again be cherry ripe on Galway Plate day. However, while he merits the utmost respect, I can't help thinking that he's going to find one or two too good this time, for he is a hefty 21lb higher in the weights now compared to when winning the penultimate renewal of this contest, and is 13lb higher than when beating Ursumman last year. Make no mistake, he faces a stiff task. In my opinion, one of the potentially best-handicapped horses in the race is Far From Trouble, who rates cracking value at 10/1 with Ladbrokes (as short as 6/1 with bet365 and Stan James), and Christy Roche's charge could well prove my theory correct by landing this valuable prize. Roche, who tasted glory in this race with another JP McManus-owned horse in 2001, Grimes, has campaigned the selection sparingly. Indeed, Far From Trouble is far from exposed for a seven-year-old having had just nine career starts, including five over fences, and he was travelling as well as anything when falling six from home in the Irish National at Fairyhouse in April. Despite coming a cropper on that occasion, the God Thyne gelding had looked a pretty safe conveyance beforehand, and it appeared to be through an error of judgement rather than anything else that he failed to win the National Hunt Challenge Cup at the Cheltenham Festival previously, when his amateur rider exaggerated the waiting tactics and Far From Trouble finished best of all, finishing just over one length third to Hot Weld. Although this 2m6f trip is probably sharper than ideal for him, Far From Trouble isn't short of pace and the fact that there will almost certainly be a strong pace on offer in this race means that his stamina may well prove to be a valuable asset. He hasn't run on going faster than good since winning a bumper on good to firm on his career debut in 2004, but there is no reason to suspect that he will be inconvenienced should he encounter top of the ground on Wednesday. Joint top-weight with Ansar is Euro Leader, who is likely to spearhead a three-pronged attack for trainer Willie Mullins, the other two being Brother Na and Davenport Democrat. If at his best, Euro Leader would be by far the best of the trio, and he will have been teed up nicely for this following a win on the level at Leopardstown in June, followed by a decent effort in a valuable French staying hurdle at Auteuil ten days later. He should give a good account, but along with stablemate Davenport Democrat and market leader Ansar, he could prove vulnerable to one at the lower end of the weights. Nial Madden's Ursumman has won his last two and must have a good chance of reversing the places with Ansar on these terms after being beaten seven lengths by that rival in this race last year. Others with place prospects include Coast To Coast, who has been the subject of good ante-post support for this, and English raider Ball O Malt, who is extremely consistent and should give his running, but is unlikely to be good enough to win. verdict - 1pt Far From Trouble @ 10/1 (Ladbrokes)