Walsh out to continue impressive Cork record on Prince Charmin'

6.05 Cork
Live Concerts @Corkracecourse Handicap Hurdle | 2m4f, 4yo+ | ATR

When Ruby Walsh comes to Cork you simply have to take notice. The 12-time champion jockey celebrated success on seven of his 12 rides at the track last season - a 58 per cent success rate, yielding a level stakes profit of €10.63 for every €1 staked.

Walsh will try to enhance that impressive record this evening when he teams up with the Tony Martin-trained Prince Charmin', who made it third time lucky over hurdles at Limerick in March.

Martin and Walsh have a 19 per cent success rate when they have teamed up in the last five seasons with 20 winners from 107 runners and you will not get a huge price about Prince Charmin' making it winner number 21.

Ballyegan Hero is the other last-time-out winner in the line-up but he seems to save his best for Tramore. He won his bumper at the seaside venue and also opened his account over hurdles there last month.

Admiral Brian represents the father and son combination of Eamonn and Eoin O'Connell and the consistent eight-year-old arrives on the back of a fine third over 3m at the venue last month.

Lower hurdle marks
A Decent Excuse and Smokey Joe Joe have much higher ratings over fences. A Decent Excuse runs off a mark of 109 here compared to his chase mark of 119, while Smokey Joe Joe is running off a 19lb lower mark than his chase rating of 127.

What they say

John Joe Walsh, trainer of Ballyegan Hero
He seems fine and put up a good performance at Tramore where he stayed on nicely. I'm hoping the ground will not be too fast for him and, if it isn't, he should run very well.

Eamonn O'Connell, trainer of Admiral Brian
He's in good form and has been there or thereabouts on his last few starts. I'd like to think he will be in the thick of things again and hopefully the ground won't get too quick.

Eugene O'Sullivan, trainer of A Decent Excuse
We have a race in mind for him over fences at Killarney so this should leave him spot-on for that. He's got a decent chance as he loves Cork and he'll definitely come on for his run last month.

Stephen Mahon, trainer of Smokey Joe Joe
He's getting on in years now but I wanted to give him a run over hurdles as he's quite a bit lower than he is over fences. He made a bad mistake the last day at Navan and Paul [Townend] minded him.