Leopardstown Boxing Day Preview

With no bet in the first race of the day we move straight onto the two mile Maiden Hurdle where the exciting El Barra for Willie Mullins will be tough to beat.

The six year old gelding is highly regarded for top connections and having finished second behind Fury Road in a point to point back in 2018 and then bought by Rich Ricci.

He was not seen for sometime, but finally made his seasonal debut this term at Thurles in November when getting off the mark in fine style.

He looks as though he could be a hard horse to train but holds bundles of ability and will be hoping to dominate this race to put himself into the Supreme Novices' Hurdle frame.

The Grade Two Knight Frank Juvenile Hurdle sees the very exciting Zanahiyr take to the stage again and at a short price looks like a good bet for the Christmas multiples.

The three year old gelding has only been seen twice to date for Gordon Elliott, racing over hurdles in October at Ballinrobe going on to beat a decent field of runners.

Owned by Noel and Valerie Moran, the connections have a lot of smart horses with the handler and off the back of his last run it suggests they have another in Zanahiyr.

The gelding stepped up into a Grade Three Juvenile Hurdle and beat a smart field by 14 lengths recording a very quick time in the sectionals.

The world seems to be his oyster off the back of that run having been smashed into a short favourite for the Triumph Hurdle in March and before that he should see this race out with ease.

The feature race of the day is the Grade One Racing Post Novice Chase over 2m1f and the horse that we have selected is the Gordon Elliott trained Felix Desjy.

The seven year old has had a very smart career to date, being a smart horse over hurdles having landed the Moscow Flyer Novice Hurdle and also finished a good fifth in the Supreme Novices' Hurdle at the 2019 Cheltenham festival.

This season Elliott has sent the gelding over fences and he has shown bundles of ability staying unbeaten on both his outings to date.

Having made his debut over the bigger obstacles back in October and winning by 31 lengths, he was then sent to Punchestown and stepped up in class to land the Grade Two Novice Chase.

What was so smart about that performance was the way in which he was headed and then used his stamina to come back and if improving again looks the one to beat.

The final selection on day one of Leopardstown's Christmas meeting comes in the 2m1f Handicap Chase and we fancy the big priced Polished Steel to run a big race.

At 10/1 the Jessica Harrington trained gelding looks overpriced having performed to a good standard in the majority of his races to date.

The six year old although carrying second highest weight in this event is dropping down in class to this handicap having previously been running well in Grade Three events.

Before a poor run last time out he finished a nice second behind Zarkareva in a Grade Three Novice Chase and back in July landed a Grade Three event at Galway.

If being able to get back to that form after being pulled up Cork he looks a big each way player at the prices.