2025 St Stephens Day Irish Racing Preview – DS
2025 St Stephens Day Irish Racing Preview
First of all, many happy returns to all our followers and hopefully, you all had a nice Christmas. We have plenty of top-class festive fare to get stuck into over the next few days and Dave Stevos is going to try his damndest to find a winner or two. He has already posted an festive e/w lucky 15, see that here. Check out his 2025 St Stephens Day Irish Racing previews and tips below.
1.10 Leopardstown – Juvenile Hurdle (Grade 2)
We start off with this Grade 2 Juvenile hurdle which is restricted to 3yos only. This has been a happy hunting ground for favourites in recent years with five of the last six renewals being won by the market leader.
At the head of the betting this year is the Willie Mullins’ trained Narciso Has. Runner up behind Mange Tout in a Fairyhouse G3 last time, this French recruit is an intriguing runner but it is worth considering that Mullins has won this race just once since 2017.
Last year, Hello Neighbour won this race for Gavin Cromwell, a horse that is owned by Patrick Sheanon. The same owner runs Puppet Master this season, a Ballydoyle cast off that was bought by Ciaran Murphy at the H-I-T sales at Tattersalls in October for 78k guineas.
Smart Flat Form
Murphy trains this son of Camelot and he achieved a rating of 105 on the Flat. A maiden winner on soft and a Listed winner on good to firm, his sole start at Leopardstown on the level saw him finish just 4.75l behind Delacroix in the G3 Ballysax Stakes in March (and 2.5l behind the Irish Derby winner Lambourn). Not bad form.
Now, it is never guaranteed that Flat ability will be replicated over jumps but Camelot has sired some decent hurdlers and you’d imagine Puppet Master has shown Murphy enough at home to justify him making his debut over hurdles at this level.
Obviously, as we haven’t seen this horse jump a hurdle in public, this is no lump job but if he is able to jump there is no doubt he has an engine so at odds of 18/1, a small e/w interest is advised.
2025 St Stephens Day Irish Racing Tip: Puppet Master e/w @ 18/1
1.45 Leopardstown – Novice Handicap Hurdle (120 = 11st 12lb)
This race paid for Christmas in 2023 thanks to Ataboycharlie. Spinola Bay has an obvious chance if handling this quicker ground but he’s just 11/2 and while his price is right on the cusp of being too short for the blog, I think the 9/1 about Welluknow is worth taking.
Trained by Mark Molloy down in Tipperary, this home bred son of Ol’ Man River came to my attention when I did the spotlights for the race he won in Gowran. He is from an excellent family, being a half-brother to the likes of Johns Spirit and The Game Changer among others, and while he didn’t win by much, it looked to me like he still had plenty up his sleeve at the finishing line.
The handicapper hiked him up to 113 from 105 after that win but I think this horse has the potential to rate a fair bit higher than that. Given his pedigree, this could easily be a 135+ horse and if he were trained by a Mullins, De Bromhead or Elliott I don’t think we’d be getting 9/1. The booking of Danny Mullins is another positive sign for Welluknow and he gets the vote as the e/w NAP of the day.
2025 St Stephens Day Irish Racing Tip: Welluknow e/w @ 9/1 (5 places) NAP
2.20 Leopardstown – Racing Post Novice Chase (Grade 1)
When I first started working on my festive e/w lucky 15 preview, the first selection was originally Irish Panther in this race. He was chalked up at 16/1 but by the time I got the piece finished he was as short as 4/1 so I had to look elsewhere for a selection.
The son of Lucarno has now drifted back out to a more appealing 17/2 and surely, that still represents a decent bit of value. We backed this lad when he was a close third in a hot handicap hurdle at the DRF last year and also when he disappointed at Cheltenham. Eddie and Patrick Harty’s charge ran a fine race over hurdles at this meeting too last year so clearly, he acts around this track.
Flawless Start
His first two runs over the bigger obstacles couldn’t have gone much better. He won by 31l on yielding ground at Clonmel and then followed up on soft at Naas. At Naas he destroyed Jacob’s Ladder and Pure Steel, both of whom came out and won next time out.
There is no doubt that this will be the toughest test of his career to date. Romeo Coolio has been equally as impressive in his two chase runs and then you have the likes of Salvator Mundi and July Flower in the mix too. However, I think Irish Panther should be shorter than those two and while Romeo Coolio will be a tough nut to crack, hopefully he can give the Elliott horse something to think about.
At odds of 17/2, Irish Panther is the each way selection.
2025 St Stephens Day Irish Racing Tip: Irish Panther e/w @ 17/2
2.55 Leopardstown – Racing Post Handicap Chase (140 = 11st 12lb)
As long-term followers will know, I am partial to backing horses that have run well in the same race or at the same meeting before. Last year, One Last Tango was only beaten a length by An Peann Dearg when finishing fourth in this race and even though visibility was drastically reduced by dense fog, there was no doubt it was an excellent effort.
The 8yo was sent off the 4/1 favourite that day and I’d imagine that Eoin Griffin has had a repeat bid in this race on his mind ever since. Yes, he’s 2lb higher now off a mark of 116 but he won over hurdles at this meeting off 122 in 2023 so I don’t think this mark is beyond him. I can see One Last Tango going off at a lot shorter than 12/1 on the day so he is the each way selection. Fingers crossed for a clear round of jumping and a trouble free passage.
