Let's talk about... leading Irish for 2020 Flat season

Who are you looking forward to seeing back in action in Ireland this year? Share your thoughts with us via racingfeedback@sportinglife.com and they will appear at the foot of the article.

Matt Brocklebank - Search For A Song

We still have no firm grasp on how the British and Irish Classic programmes are going to be mapped out in 2020, but what's quite clear is that plenty of promising three-year-olds are going to be thrown in at the deep end in the hope they're up to the challenge.

That's not unusual of course, with connections of budding, high-class juveniles from the previous season often preferring to keep the dream alive as long as possible by swerving the temptation to run in a spring trial, but it looks likely to be even more widespread in the current climate.

We'll see some crash and burn but others flourish for the opportunity to try their hand in Group One company for the first time, or tackle a new trip on their belated three-year-old debut.

One horse clearly begging for a middle-distance test last year was Aidan O'Brien's Mogul and, importantly, he gained some top-class experience when sent to Newcastle for the rearranged Vertem Futurity Stakes on November 1.

A full brother to the 2019 Juddmonte International winner Japan, he was beaten just under four lengths in fourth behind Kameko and shaped with significant potential for such a stoutly-bred son of Galileo.

If pushed for an Irish horse fancied to make his mark in this year's Classics then he'd be high on the shortlist but, conversely, there's no real rush with preparations for older horses and preference is to nominate Dermot Weld's four-year-old filly SEARCH FOR A SONG, who could be about to take her division by storm.

It's so hard for Irish yards outside of Ballydoyle to seriously compete at the top table but Weld remains a master of his trade and domestic prize money earnings were back close to €2m again last season, which is encouraging.

Search For A Song played a huge role in that success and became Weld's first Group One winner since Harzand when landing the Irish St Leger over a mile and three-quarters at the Curragh in September.

Chris Hayes took the plaudits that day with a fine ride, allowing his keen-going mount to take the initiative while other fancied runners played a game of cat and mouse in behind, but it was hard not to be impressed by the winner's burst of natural pace and seemingly deep stamina reserves.

She's from an extremely good family - being closely related to Free Eagle and a half-sister to Custom Cut and Sapphire among others, while her full brother Falcon Eight won a two-mile Listed race at Sandown last season.

Having beaten Kew Gardens two and a quarter lengths at the Curragh, the runner-up then went and overturned Stradivarius at Ascot on Champion Day and while a strict reading of that form could be fraught with danger, it's fairly obvious Search For A Song doesn't have a mass amount of improvement to make in order to be a leading Cup player this time around.

She's definitely in the right hands to make that step up the ladder and just might be the next star stayer to emerge from Ireland.

Richard Mann - Heliac

Ger Lyons's training operation has been a major force in Irish racing for some time now but the 2019 Flat season might well have elevated him to the next level, confirming that his County Meath-based yard will be mixing it at the top table in Ireland and in Britain for years to come.

Mustajeer's victory in the £1million Sky Bet Ebor in August was reward for 12 months of planning; a campaign mapped out to the finest detail following his fourth-place finish in the race the previous year, and one which saw him return to York trained to the minute and cherry ripe for the big day.

That Mustajeer was able to land the most competitive handicap run in Britain last summer with relative ease demonstrated just what a fine job Lyons did with his horse, as was the case with stablemate Siskin who finished his juvenile season unbeaten in four starts and with a Group One victory to his name.

The success of the latter will ensure that owner Prince Khalid Abdullah continues to throw his support behind Lyons but they might already have another high-class operator on their hands in the shape of HELIAC.

Unlike Siskin, Heliac has always been a long-term project and following a couple of encouraging efforts at two, she broke her duck when making a winning reappearance at Cork last May.

Another victory, this time at Roscommon, maintained the softly-softly approach before the gun was finally put to Heliac's head when she was sent off favourite for a warm handicap at Leopardstown in August. Despite running with credit, she looked a long way from the finished article when having to settle for place money and defeat from a handicap mark of 85 had seemingly dashed any hopes connections had of picking up some black type with their filly in the future.

However, when Lyons brought Heliac back for another run in October, he clearly hadn't lost any faith and though faced with her toughest test to date, she took a significant step forward to tenaciously land a valuable pot at Dundalk from a host of more experienced rivals.

As Lyons was quick to point out after the race, Heliac's best days should still be ahead of her: "...you can see the way we protected her. She's going to mature over the winter, she's still a bit weak so the future is bright for her. I'd like to think she'll grow into a nice stakes filly next year."

Indeed, Heliac's pedigree certainly suggests Lyons has made the right call in eyeing the future with a filly whose sire, Champs Elysees, has been responsible for a number of fine older stayers in the last few years, ones that have tended to improve with time and racing.

As well as boasting a smart pedigree, Heliac has been blessed with a terrific attitude while the manner in which she responded for pressure to hit the line hard at Dundalk suggests a mile and a half should be well within her compass at some stage this term.

Whether that comes in a handicap from an attractive-looking mark of 91 remains to be seen, but picking up some black type will be Heliac's main priority before her sights could be raised even higher.

With so much potential and under Lyons' tutelage, I'll be betting that Heliac enjoys a fruitful four-year-old campaign.

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