Worth sticking with in-form and progressive mare Portlairge

A pretty trappy looking evening card for the second day of Tramore’s August festival on Friday night, with the handicaps looking very competitive and the other races not that much easier to sort out either.

Local stables are well-represented on the night and more than one of them have big chances of saddling a winner. One horse with strong claims is the Henry De Bromhead-trained mare Lady Of Portlairge in the Flynn Group Mares Handicap Hurdle (6.55).

It is a race in which not many can be discounted but this mare looks genuinely well-handicapped and quite progressive. She returned from a nine-month break to run very well in a handicap hurdle at Ballinrobe in May and bounced back from a disappointing effort to land a Kilbeggan maiden hurdle last month when she just had to be pushed out to see off subsequent winner William Du Berlais by a couple of lengths.