WEEKEND PREVIEWS: MAD ABOUT You brings a touch of Group One quality to the start of the 2009 Irish turf flat racing season at the Curragh tomorrow and can provide the Dermot Weld-Pat Smullen team with victory in the feature event.
Eight runners line up for the Group Three Lodge Park Stud EBF Park Express Stakes, named after the dam of last year’s Derby hero New Approach.
They also include the black type course winners Prima Luce and Beach Bunny, as well as two other runners from the Weld camp, Scarlet O’Hara and the three-year-old Firey Red.
However, Mad About You is a clear stand-out on ratings and there will be hopes for her that she can pick up a Group One prize at some stage in 2009, just as the 2004 winner, Alexander Goldrun, managed to achieve.
Mad About You had top-class juvenile form behind Zarkava in the 2007 Prix Marcel Boussac and was runner-up in both the Irish 1,000 Guineas and the Pretty Polly Stakes at the Curragh last year. If she runs anywhere near her best then tomorrow’s task should be relatively straightforward.
Twenty-one line up for the €75,000 Keatley Groundcare Irish Lincolnshire, with the last two winners, Deauville Vision and Crooked Throw, back for another crack at the prestigious handicap. However, 12 months after he at one stage looked to be a handicap snip for this race, the ex-French Estrela Brage could finally get his head in front.
Estrela Brage’s appearance in last year’s Lincoln resulted in a controversial ratings hike of 9lb just 24 hours before the race.
The Irish handicapper hadn’t taken into account a runner-up placing at Stakes level in France and raised Estrela Brage late in order to not disadvantage the rest of the field. It didn’t do much for Estrela Brage’s chance, but he still finished less than four lengths off Crooked Throw. He subsequently returned to John Hammond’s care at Chantilly and last ran for him at Deauville on St Stephen’s Day.
Significantly he is back for another crack and races off the same 97 mark as last year, but this time for Eddie Lynam.
Kingsdale Ocean was a winner on this day three years ago for Mark Roper and can follow up in the six-furlong handicap for the Weld-Smullen team. A good draw should be a help to this versatile sort who doesn’t look too badly handicapped.
Curragh three-year-old maiden races are always informative in the early weeks of the season, and the absence of any Ballydoyle representation in tomorrow’s finale will only help the Weld newcomer Sporting Icon, a son of Sadler’s Wells.
Some more familiar names will be in action at Cork where the two-and-a-half-mile conditions hurdle features proven Grade One stars such as Essex and the Noel Meade-trained pair of Nicanor and Leading Run. Essex returned to action behind Ebaziyan three weeks ago and should be sharper for that effort, although Serpentaria looks a formidable opponent.
Coffee Tea Or Me, in his second jumping start, can take the opening maiden.
