Far Hills

GORDON Elliott and Davy Russell are back looking for worldwide winners and are represented by two runners at the Grand National Hurdle meeting in Far Hills tonight (7.44pm). Jury Duty won this for the Cullentra team back in 2018 and finished fourth the following year.

There are only four runners but the Grade 1 race sees the rematch between the top US jumper Snap Decision and the Keri Brion-trained Irish-bred mare The Mean Queen who beat him by two lengths in the Grade 1 Lonesome Glory Handicap Hurdle at Belmont. The Mean Queen won the Grade 1 Jonathan Sheppard Handicap Hurdle in Saratoga previously.

Snap Decision was reported to have been a bit short of peak fitness for the Belmont race so should put up more of a fight this time.

Elliott’s Chosen Mate will carry the colours of Benjamin H. Griswold IV and was last seen when fifth in a Killarney hurdle to Darasso.

Race five is the Gladstone Three-Year-Old Hurdle for juveniles and Elliott runs Realist who finished second to Punchestown winner Bell Ex One in Listowel last month.

Russell has the mount on the former Joseph O’Brien-trained Druid’s Altar in the second race on the card, the Foxbrook Champion Hurdle where Richie Condon teams up with Brion’s French Light. Now trained in the US by William Dowling, the four-year-old had a good level of form here with recent wins in Killarney and Wexford. Russell will also partner Irish-bred Recent Revelations in the Appleton Hurdle for Richard Hendriks.

Keeneland

Two Irish-bred graded stakes winners, Technical Analysis and Shantisara, headline a field of 10 three-year-old fillies for the Group 1 Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup Presented by Dixiana in Keeneland (9.44pm).

Chad Brown enjoyed a profitable time in last weekend’s turf Grade 1s, and he trains both Technical Analysis and Shantisara.

A winner of four of six career starts, Technical Analysis, a Kingman filly, comes off Grade 2 and 3 victories at Saratoga.

Shantisara, an Irish-bred daughter of Coulsty, has won two of three starts since coming to North America from France, recording victories in the Grade 3 Pucker Up at Arlington and the Jockey Club Oaks Invitational at Belmont Park. Flavien Prat has the mount from post three.

Headlining the European contingent is Empress Josephine for trainer Aidan O’Brien. The Galileo filly backs up quickly after her third last weekend in the Grade 1 First Lady under John Velazquez who rides again from stall four.

Empress Josephine is following in a trail blazed 10 years ago by Together for the same connections. Together was second in the First Lady and a week later won the Queen Elizabeth II.

Also coming from Europe is the William Haggas-trained Cloudy Dawn (Kodiac), winner of the Group 3 Prix de Lieurey at Deauville, and Donnacha O’Brien’s Nicest, most recently third in the Juddmonte Irish Oaks. Brian Hernandez Jr. rides Cloudy Dawn with Julien Leparoux on aboard Nicest.

Woodbine

A field of 10 fillies and mares line up for the 10 furlong Grade 1 EP Taylor Stakes in Woodbine (9.37pm). There is one European runner in the Roger Varian-trained Waliyak.

The daughter of Le Havre brings a good level of form, winning the Group 3 Prix Bertrand de Tarragon over a mile and one at Chantilly last time after she was second to subsequent Group 1 winner Saffron Beach in the Atlanta Stakes in Sandown and a Haydock listed winner previously. Jack Mitchell rides and she is drawn one.

The French-bred Etoile represents owners Peter Brant, Magnier and Shanahan. The daughter of Siyouni won this last year for Chad Brown and comes off a second in the Grade 2 trial the Dance Smartly here which she also used as a prep last year.