BELLEWSTOWN'S three-day festival gets under way this evening and while the Pounds 4,000 McAuley Maiden may not compensate John Murtagh for his narrow defeat on Dr Johnson in Sunday's Derby, it should provide the champion jockey with a welcome winner aboard Burnt Toast.
The Tommy Stack-trained filly has been running consistently this season and goes into this race as the joint top rated along with Nidaa and although slightly disappointing last time out at Navan, she's preferred to Nidaa and the Dermot Weld newcomer Macarena.
The slight worry from that race, which was won by Sweet Mazarine (just touched off at the Curragh over the weekend) is that the ground was yielding which is the forecast going for tonight. Probably Burnt Toast's best effort was before Navan when she ran second to Stefka with Sweet Mazarine and the useful Velvet Appeal in behind. That was on a good surface but there are reasons to believe Burnt Toast can overcome a possible dislike of the surface.
Nidaa ran a smart race behind Lady Shannon at Leopardstown at the end of May but hasn't really run up to that since and while Macarena may be useful, there was an inconsistency about the Weld trained horses over the Curragh weekend that suggests the last remnants of the virus may still be hanging on at Rosewell House. In the circumstances, Burnt Toast and Murtagh look the bet.
The form of Lady Alexander's maiden win at Naas looks very good now in the light of the sixth and seventh on that occasion, Two-Twenty-Two and Fairy Flight winning at the Curragh, and it looks to hold the key to the opening Kilsharvan Maiden.
John Muldoon's Dress Design managed to finish third in that Naas race with tonight's opponent, Liffey Ballad, only a neck behind in fourth. There's little between the two but being by Brief Truce, Dress Design may appreciate the ground more than Liffey Ballad who is by Ballad Rock. Aidan O'Brien's Marigot Bay has had plenty of winning opportunities without taking them and may have to play a minor role again.
It could be worth taking a chance with Tony Mullins's Derringer in the Murphy Sand and Gravel Maiden. Second to My Lorraine at Sligo last Tuesday, he lived up to his breeding by acting on the soft-ground but that same breeding should see him appreciate this step up to a mile from six furlongs and his debut behind Celebrity Style at the Curragh wasn't a bad effort.
Not Clever was an impressive 13-length winner of a Wexford bumper recently and while the bare form of that race may not amount to much, it was just reward for some promising previous efforts. He has more on his plate in the Moore Car Sales Hurdle but may be up to the task.
The Aidan O'Brien stable still on a high from the Derby weekend, can keep the ball rolling with Rainbow Frontier in the Oldbridge Concrete Handicap and Ted Walsh can wind proceedings up with success in the bumper courtesy of Total Success.
Irishman Robert Winston (17) did not have a single winner to his credit at the start of this season. But yesterday, at rain-soaked Pontefract, he took his score to 12 when he recorded a 15-length victory on Alf Smith's 20 to 1 shot Captain Flint in the Smeaton Selling Handicap. The victory came just 24 hours after Winston had scored on Swan At Whalley at Doncaster.
