Princess Zoe set to return to action at Cork on Saturday

The Group One winner Princess Zoe is on track to return to action at Cork on Saturday.

Tony Mullins’s hugely popular mare sealed a remarkable 2020 campaign with victory in the Prix Du Cadran last autumn and has a series of ambitious targets during the upcoming flat season.

She is one of 14 fillies and mares left in the Listed Noblesse Stakes this weekend and is top-rated on an official mark of 110.

“As long as the ground is yielding, yielding to soft, she’ll run there. The mile-and-a-half should suit her nicely,” Mullins said.

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Races ranging from the mile-and-a-quarter Tattersalls Gold Cup to the two-and-a-half mile Ascot Gold Cup are on the radar for the Paddy Kehoe-owned six-year-old whose progress through five wins in-a-row was one of the most high-profile racing stories of last year.

Separately, the Ronan McNally-trained Dreal Deal is unbeaten in his last six starts and could attempt to seal his own remarkable progress with a Grade One success at Aintree next week.

The Ronan McNally-trained star hasn't run since winning the Moscow Flyer Hurdle at Punchestown in January and missed Cheltenham.

He has been given a couple of Grade Two entries at Fairyhouse this Sunday but is likely to wait for Aintree however.

McNally said: “If we go to Fairyhouse he’d have a Grade Two penalty so I’ll probably aim for Aintree to be honest because it will give us more time as well.

“He’s entered in all the Grade One’s over two-miles, two-and-a half and three-miles. Aintree is sharp enough so I would be looking at the two-and-a-half and three-miler, but I wouldn’t discount the two-miler.

“His form over two miles is very good so we’ll have a look and see what is the weakest race.

“There weren’t many runners at Cheltenham in the novice races and those that ran will have had hard races. I think we’ll run in the weakest race if I’m honest.”

In other news Horse Racing Ireland confirmed a series of programming changes to May’s calendar.

Alterations have been made to 10 fixtures with eight meetings moving from an evening date to an afternoon slot.

They include a Leopardstown fixture on Friday, May 14th which has been moved from an evening to an afternoon.

A Wexford card scheduled for the following afternoon has been moved to the Sunday.

HRI said the alterations are in order “to accommodate the racing industry participants while there are no racegoers permitted to attend, and to assist racecourses in maximising streaming rights income”.

Newmarket racecourse has announced a race will be run in memory of the late Pat Smullen at next month’s Craven meeting.

Smullen died of cancer last September aged 43 and a race will be run in his honour on April 13th.

His friend, and Newmarket resident, Ted Durcan, said on Tuesday: “There were a lot of people in England at the time of Pat’s funeral who weren’t able to pay their respects with all the Covid restrictions.

“I know many of us would have liked to have been able to hold a memorial service, which we weren’t able to do, and this is just hopefully a nice way to remember Pat.”