After a treble at Punchestown yesterday, Jim Bolger will hope that his twoyear-old filly Aretha will bring his total of winners this season to 50 in tomorrow's Listed Radley Stakes at Newbury.
The Naas winner will certainly travel with a stable in form behind her, as Bolger dominated the opening three races yesterday.
Berenica broke her maiden at the eighth attempt and provided Irish soccer international striker Niall Quinn with his first success as a breeder in the first race. Then Tushna, disqualified from first at Naas on Tuesday, made no mistake in the Nursery.
Gild brought up the treble in easy fashion under Jamie Spencer in the apprentice race, after which Bolger bemoaned the lack of a suitable end-of-season opportunity for Aretha in Ireland.
"Since we lost the Silken Glider Stakes we don't have a race here for fillies," Bolger said. "It seems an odd way to go in these days of gender balance!"
Niall McCullagh notched his 28th winner of the season on Tushna, but there had been drama earlier in the race when the third favourite, Colouring, crashed through the rails after two furlongs and unseated Seamus Heffernan. He was not hurt and the stewards attributed the incident to general bunching.
The Dunstown Wood Chase had been billed as a clash between the 1 to 2 favourite Grimes and the veteran Cockney Lad, but Strong Run put them both in their place with a sparkling winning debut over fences.
Fairyhouse's Drinmore Chase is a target for the John Fowler-trained winner. But the disappointment of the race was Grimes who was well beaten before his nose touched the ground after clambering over the last.
"For him, he was breaking fences," said Grimes's rider Conor O'Dwyer. "I was never happy the whole way and he had been schooling great and was fit."
The Ladbroke Hurdle is a longterm aim for Frozen Groom, but he provided Noel Meade with his eighth winner since Sunday with a smooth defeat of the favourite, Take Five, in the Grainger Hurdle. Willie Deacon saddled Tudor Style to get the better of the odds on Green Light in the maiden hurdle.
Tipperary racecourse issued a confident "ready to go" bulletin for Istabraq's reappearance tomorrow after passing its routine track inspection.
The ground was officially soft yesterday and the course manager, David Wright, said: "We have had very little rain, the inspector was quite happy with the track and we are ready to roll for Saturday. Showers are forecast for tonight but no further inspections are planned."
Aidan O'Brien hinted yesterday that he will have three runners in tomorrow's Racing Post Trophy at Doncaster. Aristotle, Lermontov and Zentsov Street remain in the Group One mile race, and O'Brien said yesterday: "There is a strong possibility all will run."
O'Brien's Ciro has kept the Group One Gran Criterium following an unsuccessful appeal by the connections of the demoted Barathea Guest in Paris on Wednesday night. The appeal panel upheld the decision that awarding the race to the Irish colt Ciro was correct.
The stewards said that interference suffered by Ciro at the beginning of the straight was significant enough as to have affected the result.
Dermot Weld has again deferred a decision on whether to run Make No Mistake in the Group One WS Cox Plate after the Meld Stakes winner pulled up lame after trackwork at Caulfield yesterday.
Weld had hoped to give the all clear for tomorrow's Australian feature, but he now faces an anxious wait as Make No Mistake, whose preparations have been hindered by a hoof ailment, was visibly sore.
