RACING: IT MIGHT be free in for everyone else at the Curragh this Sunday but it cost €67,500 to give three of the main fancies for the featured Moyglare Stud Stakes their shot at Group One glory.
As expected the connections of both Sendmylovetorose and My Special J’s yesterday paid up the €22,500 supplementary fee to get into Ireland’s most important race for juvenile fillies.
However, the Richard Hannon team did the same for Sky Lantern who will try to send the Moyglare for export back across the Irish Sea for the first time since Mail The Desert 10 years ago.
The latter’s trainer, Mick Channon, has two entries remaining in the race – Orpha and Jillnextdoor – after yesterday’s declaration stage while the other British hopeful among a list of 21 acceptors is the unbeaten-in-two Just The Judge from the Charlie Hills yard.
Aidan O’Brien has four possibles as he chases a seventh Moyglare success but much Irish interest will centre on the Cherry Hinton winner Sendmylovetorose from Andy Oliver’s Co Tyrone yard and My Special J’s who flies the flag for first season trainer Pat Shanahan.
Chelsea Rose was a Moyglare heroine for Shanahan in 2004 during his riding days but her Debutante Stakes success over the course and distance last month has been the highlight to date of a successful start to a new career.
“The filly is in great form and we are confident of a big showing from here,” said Shanahan yesterday. “My Special J’s is a good mover and will appreciate faster ground . . . I would not swap her for any other horse in the race.”
Andy Oliver enjoyed a wonderful two days at the last Curragh weekend, landing the Futurity with First Cornerstone and the Cambridgeshire with Punch Your Weight. He is eagerly looking forward to a crack at the very top-flight with Sendmylovetorose.
“She is in super form and it’s all systems go for Sunday. She is a light moving filly. And although she has won on soft ground, we think she will appreciate the likely better ground at the weekend. She has really thrived since her victory in the Cherry Hinton Stakes at Newmarket back in July,” he said.
My Special J’s had a neck in hand of Harasiya in the Debutante and John Oxx’s Group Three winner is joined among the Moyglare entries by her stable companion Karamaya, a narrow winner of her maiden on Futurity day. Ground conditions could be different this weekend though. The going was officially “yielding to soft” at the Curragh yesterday with it expected to dry out significantly during the course of a largely dry week.
Oliver and Shanahan are pursuing a first top-flight success as trainers but Sky Lantern, runner up to Certify in the Sweet Solera and Ollie Olga in the Prestige at Goodwood, is in line to give Hannon a second Moyglare following the Lester Piggott-ridden Lemon Souffle in 1993. Sunday’s main support event is the Group Two Blandford Stakes and among the entries are the Prix de l’Opera winner Nahrain who also holds an engagement in Saturday’s Matron Stakes at Leopardstown.
The sponsors will hope to run the Pretty Polly runner-up Sapphire in the Balndford while Michael Bell has kept open the option of running Set To Music, owned by the queen. Set To Music’s best form to date includes a third to Great Heavens in the Lancashire Oaks in July.
Aidan O’Brien’s Prix Morny runner-up George Vancouver is the stand-out name among two dozen hopefuls for the Group 3 Round Tower Stakes.
To commemorate the 50th Anniversary of Moyglare Stud, founder Walter Haefner’s daughter, Eva-Maria Bucher Haefner, is offering race goers free admission to the Curragh on the day.
The ground at Leopardstown yesterday ahead of the Champion Stakes fixture remained “good to soft”.
