It's a huge weekend for our columnist. Check out his thoughts on his runners at the Curragh.
It was very sad to learn of the death of the Queen on Thursday.
I got to meet her on a couple of occasions when riding for her and she was always very enjoyable company, you came away feeling good just for speaking to her.
She was very knowledgeable about racing, was keen to talk about how the race went, how the horse felt during it.
Racing was her passion, she was so easy to talk to because she had such an interest in it. She was a huge supporter of the sport. She had a wonderful life at 96 and will be sadly, sadly missed by the racing community who she had so many strong links to.
Curragh Sunday
15:35 Shartash
I think the step up to seven furlongs will really suit him. If you’d asked me at the start of the year, would he get this trip I wouldn’t have been sure but he seems to be a bit more relaxed now. It’s going to be a long way up there, seven at the Curragh, but he’s another who’s training very well and will handle the ground.
It’s very exciting for me to have a Group One two-year-old runner for His Highness the Aga Khan.
16:45 Alabama Pearl
A nice filly who ran well when chasing home Karaoke at Dundalk last month. We’re going to let her take her chance in this sales race, there are a couple of English runners who look like they’ll be hard to beat, but we hope she runs her race, gets involved and picks up a couple of quid along the way.
17:20 Safecracker
Ben just thought over a mile-and-a-quarter at the Curragh we can ride him forward. We picked this race out for him, he’s in really, really good form at the moment and I think he deserves to take his chance. He’s drawn OK In seven but has to run a career best in what is a very competitive race.
17:20 Annerville
A filly we thought a lot of during the year. She disappointed on a couple of occasions, but we’ve freshened her up and she’s in good form. If she’s anywhere near the level she was working to earlier in the year, when we thought she was a stakes filly in the making, she’d be interesting. The signs at home are good anyway.
17:20 Flying Dolphin
I think he’ll appreciate the ease in the ground. I maybe ran him a bit soon after Ascot at Leopardstown last time and he bombed out a little bit, but he’s well drawn here and will like the cut in the ground.
If he can run his Ascot race he’ll be bang there.
17:20 Kerkiyra
The least exposed of our runners and Jamie Powell is claiming seven. With the three-year-olds in these very competitive handicaps you do worry about whether they know enough about the game yet and she has a terrible draw in 26 but off 8st 1lb I think she has an each-way chance.
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