Irish 2000 Guineas

Eight runners are set to go to post for tomorrow's Boylesports Irish 2000 Guineas at the Curragh. The first three in the English Guineas meet once again, with many commentators convinced the race is between Newmarket victor Henrythenavigator and New Approach. At the time of writing New Approach is generally 11/8 while Henrythenavigator is 7/4. Stubbs Art, a 100/1 shot at Newmarket, finished four lengths behind the principals and makes some appeal as an each-way wager in this, provided the eight take their chance. He's currently priced at 16/1; trainer David Elsworth seems quite upbeat about the horse's chance and has persuaded the owner to shell out the sizeable supplementary fee. Aidan O'Brien's Jupiter Pluvius looks a dark horse. Casting my mind back to discussion before the season's first classic, I'm sure a couple of commentators rated this horse the best of the Ballydoyle entries before his unfortunate withdrawal; he looks bred for speed, but, if he stays the trip, I think he will go close. I'm going out on a bit of a limb and will back Jupiter Pluvius to win at around 8/1 and Stubbs Art each way at 16/1 or bigger.

There's a decent jumps card at Stratford tomorrow evening, the highlight being the Champion Hunters' Chase over three and a half miles, due off at 7.20. Peter Bowen's Take The Stand will be popular but I'll look closely at Natiain; on official handicap ratings he's the one they all have to beat. Regular pilot Harry Haynes has recently turned professional, so top amateur Ollie Greenhall gets the leg-up. There's a fair chance Natiain will try to make all; in the Weekender Carl Evans reports that trainer Alistair Brown is 'quietly confident'. Natiain rates a bet at around the 4/1 mark.

Finally Coral go 6/1 Queen of the South to lift the Scottish Cup and 10/1 the Dumfries side will get the job done in ninety minutes; given Rangers' recent schedule, those prices look tempting...

Sporting snippets...

Racing takes place at Cheltenham on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday evening this coming week, while Ayr race on Friday and Saturday, with the Scottish Grand National the highlight.

I'm not an avid follower of the The Times' 'Ask Lucia' feature, where readers are encouraged to write in to Lucia van der Post with their fashion queries. Anyway, Mrs Tips brought my attention to last Friday's column which carried the headline 'I want to look gorgeous at the gee-gees'. A female reader with £500 to spend was seeking advice on what to wear; just one week after the Aintree meeting, Lucia was pulling no punches. "Well, we certainly got a lesson last week in how not to do it. The pictures from Aintree were awful. Quite apart from the vulgarity of so much flesh on display (the cleavage, the thighs), I wondered how many of the women ended up with pneumonia." Yikes. Ms van der Post advocates the Carla Bruni approach - 'the combination of beauty and demure clothes' - but isn't convinced you can pull it off with a meagre £500 in your purse. Different world, isn't it?

It was a case of footballing highs and lows in the Tips' household this weekend. My home town team, Wrexham, suffered another defeat that brought relegation from the Football League a step closer but Mrs Tips' home town team, Queen of the South, beat Aberdeen 4-3 to reach the Scottish Cup Final for the first time in their history - well done Queens!