There may be a pair of Grand Nationals in the next week but there is a sense of the flat season kicking off properly at Leopardstown this afternoon where Arch Swing can book her classic ticket for the Newmarket 1,000 Guineas.
A combination of fast ground and the appearance of some high-class horses make this a potentially very significant meeting for the rest of the season but Arch Swing could still make the biggest impression in the Dimitrova 1,000 Trial.
She certainly impressed in two starts last year, especially the second which yielded a widemargin success in the Group Three Park Stakes. Arch Wing is highly regarded by both John Oxx and Michael Kinane and, significantly, has been backed down to as low as 11 to 1 ahead of Newmarket this week prior to her first start of the season.
The Oxx-Kinane team are represented in the 2,000 Trial by Alarazi who made a winning debut on day one of the season at the Curragh on very different ground. Admiralofthefleet, last year's Royal Lodge winner, is guaranteed to relish the conditions but has to concede 3lbs while Aidan O'Brien's other runner, Yellowstone, is reported to be not quite as forward as his stable companion.
Dermot Weld saddles an interesting horse in the Juddmonte runner Consul General but maybe Admiralofthefleet can defy his Group Two penalty.
Mahler is expected to make his presence felt in the mile and a quarter maiden and O'Brien's running two fillies in the opening maiden. Seamus Heffernan is on board the newcomer All My Loving but the chances of Shamardal's sister Diamond Necklace cannot be discounted.
The Ballydoyle team will have their first overseas runner of 2007 when Soldier Of Fortune travels to France tomorrow for the Group Two Prix Noailles at Longchamp. Last season's Criterium de Saint-Cloud runner-up will be ridden by the French champion jockey Christophe Soumillon.
At Cork, ex-champion jockey Paul Carberry makes his return from a foot injury in the opening maiden hurdle and Rocket Boy could be good enough to give him a perfect comeback.
