RACING ROUND-UP:FAIRYHOUSE HOSTS some Group Three action this evening and Kitty Kiernan can do her bit for Ireland by repelling a strong cross-channel challenge. The Jim Bolger-trained filly is one of seven three-year-olds in the €80,000 Brownstown Stakes and the younger brigade include a pair of English raiders with Classic form.
Sent From Heaven and Distinctive finished fourth and fifth respectively in the English 1,000 Guineas and although both have been beaten since, they look major contenders at this level.
Charles O’Brien sprang a 20 to 1 surprise in last year’s Brownstown with Glowing and is represented by the Haydock Listed winner Bewitched this time.
However, Kitty Kiernan still looks the best home hope on the strength of her encouraging return to winning form at Naas earlier in the month when comfortably beating Emulous.
On her two-year-old debut, the Pivotal filly was good enough to beat no less than Lillie Langtry and this seven furlongs trip looks ideal for her.
The Bolger team will also fancy their chances in the following handicap with Spelterini who might be 4lb out of the handicap proper but comes here on the back of a victory in Friday night’s Apprentice Derby at the Curragh.
The concluding mile-and-a-half maiden is nothing much to write home about but it could provide High Chaparral’s sister, Dance On By, with a hugely valuable winning bracket.
This will be her eighth start and she has given signs of being less than straightforward but this is a weak contest and Dance On By wasn’t beaten far at Down Royal last time.
Blinkers seemed to work for Cheval Rouge at Naas last week when she showed remarkable acceleration to win going away from School Holidays. She has topweight in tonight’s three-year-old handicap but the headgear is on again.
Meanwhile, the Irish 1,000 Guineas heroine Bethrah could return to action over a mile and a quarter in September’s Matron Stakes at Leopardstown.
Dermot Weld ruled out supplementing his classic winner into the Coronation Stakes at Royal Ascot and instead Bethrah is on a mid-summer break.
“She will be back from her holidays in a couple of weeks. She had three quick runs and we felt she needed a break,” Weld’s son, Kris, said yesterday. “The Matron on Irish Champion Stakes day could be a race for her.”
The Weld team are considering Saturday’s Group Two Lancashire Oaks at Haydock for their Noblesse Stakes winner Grace O’Malley but plans are less certain for Profound Beauty who was out of luck in the Curragh Cup at the weekend. “Unfortunately the ground in the last two furlongs in the straight was probably the quickest on the track and she wouldn’t let herself down. She lost nothing in defeat,” Weld added.
Tote Ireland have taken over the sponsorship of next month’s Galway Plate, one of the centrepieces of the 2010 summer festival. The summer’s most valuable steeplechase will be known as the tote.com Galway Plate and it will be worth €200,000.
The festival’s Tuesday feature will be known as the Topaz Mile, with the fuel retailer taking over the €120,000 sponsorship from the Tote.
