John Ingles provides an overview of the key things to note on Sunday.
Twomey can strike again in Priory Belle
Paddy Twomey won the Priory Belle Stakes (16:25) at Leopardstown two years ago with A Lilac Rolla who went on to finish second in the Irish 1000 Guineas and looks to have a good chance of winning the Group 3 contest again, this time with Black Caviar Gold who looks the type to go on improving this year after winning her last two starts at two.
After winning a maiden at Cork, she took the step up to Group 3 company in her stride when running out a ready winner of the Weld Park Stakes at the Curragh in September, travelling smoothly and then quickening to lead in the final furlong. She goes over seven furlongs again here, but a mile won’t be a problem when the time comes, whether she follows the route taken by A Lilac Rolla or takes up her 1000 Guineas entry at Newmarket instead.
Black Caviar Gold is up against form pick True Love, last season’s Cheveley Park Stakes winner for Aidan O’Brien, but as well as carrying a penalty for that success, True Love, who also won the Queen Mary Stakes last year, has plenty of speed and needs to prove herself over this extra furlong if she’s to take up either of her 1000 Guineas entries.
Derby favourite Pierre Bonnard returns in the Ballysax
Aidan O’Brien has won the Ballysax Stakes (16:55) at Leopardstown a dozen times starting with his first win in 1999. Two of his early winners, Galileo and High Chaparral, went on to become Derby winners, though none of his more recent Ballysax winners have emulated that pair at Epsom, even though last year’s winner Delacroix started favourite. Delacroix proved himself a high-class colt back at a mile and a quarter later in the year with wins in the Eclipse and Irish Champion Stakes. O’Brien isn’t the only trainer to have won the Ballysax with a future Derby winner as Dermot Weld achieved that feat ten years ago with Harzand.
O’Brien runs four colts in this year’s Ballysax, including the imposing Pierre Bonnard who is already Derby favourite on the strength of his efforts at two. He ended his juvenile campaign with a hat-trick that included the Zetland Stakes at Newmarket on good to firm ground and the Criterium de Saint-Cloud on soft, both wins proving that he stays a mile and a quarter already and suggesting that he’ll have no trouble with the Derby trip. He is, after all, by one Derby winner, Camelot, out of the daughter of another, New Approach.
Strictly at the weights, Pierre Bonnard will need to improve if he’s to confirm superiority over the Saint-Cloud runner-up A Boy Named Susie, trained by Donnacha O’Brien, who was two lengths behind him there and 5 lb better off now, but he got outstayed by the winner on that occasion and doesn’t have the same scope for improvement as the Ballydoyle colt.
Montezuma can get off the mark at Musselburgh
The Sky Bet Sunday Series returns at Musselburgh where Jim Goldie, one of the biggest supporters of this initiative, has three runners in the concluding five-furlong handicap (18:45). They include veteran Arnhem and Classy Al, a quirky half-brother to stablemate American Affair who won this race himself two years ago before achieving Group 1 success at Royal Ascot in last season’s King Charles III Stakes.
But Goldie’s best chance looks to be with Montezuma, even though the four-year-old is still looking for a first career victory. The former Godolphin cast-off had his first start for Goldie last year over nine furlongs but he’s quite a free-going sort and fared better in sprints, running his best race when runner-up over this course and distance last September on his first try at the minimum trip.
Montezuma looked a sprint handicapper to follow this season, and he began the campaign with a very promising return over Musselburgh’s five furlongs last Saturday under stable apprentice Lauren Young. Behind after rearing leaving the stalls, he shaped better than the bare result after meeting trouble in running, keeping on in the last half-furlong for second behind Wheels of Fire and earning the ‘Horse In Focus’ flag. Young switches to Classy Al instead here, with Paul Mulrennan partnering Montezuma who heads the Timeform weight-adjusted ratings.
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