20-05-2025
Rogue Legend can get punters off to flying start at Cork
Flat action Tuesday evening in Mallow, where Rogue Legend can get punters off to the best possible start by taking the Irish EBF Median Sires Series Maiden for Paddy Twomey and Billy Lee.
The juvenile made his racing debut over course and distance a fortnight ago and ran a race of promise when taking second place behind the previously raced Oh Cecelia. He hung left towards the stands' side rail at a crucial point of the race but when able to switch back out, he finished off to good effect.
While the winner was a shade comfortable at the line, the selection can be expected to be much more streetwise this time, and that should be enough to make him hard to beat.
Raphello was a couple of places behind him on that occasion and will do well to reverse the form. Baker Blue is feared more. He finished third behind the potentially very smart Joyful Tidings on his only start to date and showed plenty of pace in doing so. With that run under his belt, and the stable looking as though it is about to strike form, he can run a big race.
The second race, Follow Us On Social Media Handicap, is a fascinating contest. Tropical Retreat probably won't be streetwise enough to come out on top but there is little doubt Tom Mullins' twice-raced filly will, in time at least, prove much better than her mark of 72.
An eyecatcher on debut, she won second time up, over the minimum trip, at Dundalk, and the way she travelled through that race had an unmistakable quality about it. She was green under pressure but forged on close home to win by half a length. Value for considerably more than the winning margin, she is a smart sort in the making, and worth noting in the market.
In race three, the five-furlong, 0-60 handicap, the selection is An Laochmor, though the threat of the thoroughly frustrating My Girl Sioux looms large.
In late March, the selection ran a fine race in defeat in a five-furlong race at Navan but was caught in the closing stages. Upped to six furlongs next time, he ran another good race but was unable to sustain his effort inside the final hundred yards. Back to five today, the four-year-old, who has plenty of natural speed, can get off the mark at the eighth time of asking.
To date, only Cian Horgan has managed to coax My Girl Sioux across the line in front, and that record of one win from 46 starts is a glaring concern. Runner-up eight times, four of which have been since January, on her latest outing, which was just three days ago, she went to the front inside the quarter-mile pole, only to be picked off by Devil's Angel. If returned to waiting tactics, she will be a danger — and she certainly couldn't be begrudged a long overdue second win — but her record suggests she'll find one too good.
