Connacht National: the one race you can't afford to miss on Tuesday

8.10 Roscommonthetote.com Connacht National Handicap Chase | 3m½f | 5yo+ | RTV

Why is it interesting?

A typically competitive field will fight it out for their share of the €30,000 on offer and prestige attached with winning Roscommon's best jumps race of the season.

Kaiser Black, winner of the race last year, has gone on to prove himself something out of the ordinary by landing a Grade 3 Novice Chase back in March and, if there is to be a potential improver in the field this time around, Shark Hanlon will be hoping his Rewritetherules is the one.

An impressive winner of two starts this season, Rewritetherules is tackling handicap company for the first time and gets into the race off just 10st 5lb, with amateur jockey Tom Hamilton taking off a further 5lb with his claim.

The bigger outfits are well represented, too, with JP McManus, who last won the race in 2012 with Ainama, running four, and Gigginstown House Stud, successful in 2011 with Campbonnais, double-handed.

What do the stats say?

The previous two winners may have carried over 11st but, in general, it pays to concentrate on those at the foot of the weights with six of the last eight winners carrying 10st 12lb or less.

Previous course form clearly counts for a lot as Golden Kite and Aranhill Chief have recorded back-to-back wins in this prestigious handicap chase in the past decade.

Thinking outside the box is a tactic that usually works for punters, with last year's winner Kaiser Black, sent off a 7-2 shot, the first horse over the past eight years to carry the favourite's tag to victory.

Davy Russell has the Midas touch in this race. Last year's victory aboard Pat Doyle's Kaiser Black secured back-to-back wins for the rider, after he was successful aboard On Fiddlers Green for Henry de Bromhead in 2017. Russell bids to complete the treble aboard the Gordon Elliott-trained Cecil Corbett.

What do the connections say?

Frank Berry, racing manager to JP McManus, owner of The Gatechecker, Tesseract, Riviera Sun and Behind Time
The Gatechecker didn't run too badly the last day and hopefully, if he gets a bit of better ground, he can be competitive. Tesseract ran a nice race on his return at Ballinrobe, where he jumped well, so we're keeping our fingers crossed for a big run from him. Riviera Sun and Behind Time are a little up against it.

Eddie O’Leary, racing manager to Gigginstown House Stud, owners of Wishmoor and Stoneford
Wishmoor is running his way towards the sales but, if he puts his best foot forward, there's a race in him. Stoneford has a small squeak, hopefully. He ran a nice race the last day and he has a nice weight.

Wishmoor: one of two runners for Gigginstown House StudCredit: Patrick McCann

Gavin Cromwell, trainer of Mac N Cheese
He actually ran a solid race in the Mayo National, where he was probably a little out-classed. We're back in grade and hopefully he can be competitive. He's in good nick.

Shark Hanlon, trainer of Rewritetherules
At the weights he has to have a chance. He has a lovely weight and Tom Hamilton, who knows him well, claims a few pounds off him as well. He's been impressive in two hunters chases and we had to take our chance in a race like this. We'll know a lot more about how good or how bad he is after this, but hopefully he's in there with a good chance.

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