IRISH RACING WEEKEND PREVIEWS:WHETHER TOMORROW'S Group Three feature at Leopardstown lives up to its Derby pedigree is debatable, but what it should produce is the sort of decent ground that can help Mister Carter keep his unbeaten record.
Tommy Stack’s colt made a winning debut last month over the course and distance of the McGrath Memorial Ballysax Stakes, and tomorrow faces seven opponents, all of whom are more experienced.
They include the 110-rated Mikhail Glinka, one of two from Aidan O’Brien’s yard, and the champion trainer has used the Ballysax to kick off the three-year-old careers of High Chaparral, Galileo and Yeats.
The Ballysax was also the sole time Sinndar got beaten, while last year Fame And Glory signalled his classic potential for the first time.
It might surprise if any of this weekend’s contenders are quite up to that standard. The Ballydoyle pair are likely to improve for their first starts of the season, while Elusive Award and Puncher Clynch look smart without being obvious classic contenders.
The same comment could apply to Mister Carter, but he is race-fit, in form, and, significantly, Wayne Lordan sticks with him instead of switching to Icon Dream, for whom Jamie Spencer has been engaged.
It’s no mean plus point either that the Stack team have started the season in red-hot form, and the trainer’s son and assistant, Fozzy, said yesterday: “Mister Carter is a horse we’ve always liked and he had been working okay before his debut. But that is usually a hot maiden and it was nice to see him go and do it. The ground will be fine for him.”
After a dry week, the Leopardstown going looks like being genuinely good, which will be a welcome change of pace for Mikhail Glinka who chased home Passion For Gold in a Saint-Cloud bog last autumn.
One horse who wouldn’t have minded the ground staying soft is Famous Name, whose target this year is straight-forward – to land an elusive Group One victory.
The 2008 French Derby runner-up also finished second in last year’s Tattersalls Gold Cup and the Prix Moulin, while at the same time enjoying a prolific season at a lower level.
Dermot Weld’s admirable horse concedes weight to six others in the Listed Heritage Stakes tomorrow, but despite that can kick his season off with a win, as his nearest rival on figures, Gan Amhras, appears just a pale shadow of the colt that ran such a fine race in last year’s Guineas.
Many of Ballydoyle’s runners have been improving dramatically for a run, and if that pattern remains for the mile-and-a- quarter maiden then September Morn should be hard to beat. The colt ran an eye-catching third to Mister Carter last month.
And the Dansili colt Zoffany is bred to make an impression in the juvenile maiden.
John Oxx’s Haralan only made his debut last August and his subsequent start was a disappointing fifth in the Trigo Stakes.
But Oxx’s perseverance with the son of Sinndar looks significant in the context of the 14-furlong handicap.
